3 May 2018

• In a joint letter to Herald Ruijter, Director of Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport at European Commission’s DG MOVE, ERA and other leading industry associations express their continued support for the European Commission’s 2013 proposal to revise the EU261 air passenger rights regulation.
• In particular, the associations support the trigger points for delay compensation, the principle of a list of extraordinary circumstances and the limitation of the obligation for care and assistance – all points that are also supported by the EP and the Council.

ERA (European Regions Airline Association*), IATA, AIRE and A4E believe that the EC proposal is still fit for purpose and hope than an adoption is possible under this European Commission’s term. The associations also express their wish that common ground can be found on other provisions such as the partial ban of the no show policy and the obligations in case of missed connections. In addition, ERA, IATA, AIRE and A4E say that the proliferation and the aggressive and sometimes dodgy practices of claim agencies have changed the landscape since 2013. The associations have shared a suggestion for additional wording in the regulation and hope that the Commission can support it when the co-decision process resumes.

Finally, regarding the recent adoption of the EC proposal on ‘collective redress’ which includes air passenger rights in its scope, the associations strongly believe that this new instrument will only be used to address ‘mass harm’ situations and that EU261 is already designed to address even extreme situations.

ERA, together with the other associations, looks forward to continuing the work on the current revision of Regulation 261 as soon as it is politically feasible.