EU considering new rules for airlines – Passengers to get compensation more easily, ticket price hikes feared

Air passenger rights are once again in the focus of European institutions, while discussions are underway in Brussels on possible changes to the rules on compensation for flight delays and cancellations. While travel organizations are calling for simpler and faster procedures for exercising rights, airlines are warning that higher costs could lead to higher airfares for passengers.

Tango Six editor Petar Vojinovic says that, above all, it is necessary to clarify the difference between the right to assistance or care due to flight delays and the right to compensation.

– Assistance and care are your food, drink, accommodation, rerouting to the next flight, and financial compensation has already been established as a fixed amount according to the regulations also applied by Serbia. These are compensations between EUR 250 and 600, depending on the length of the flight – Vojinovic points out.

He emphasizes that a passenger does not have an automatic right to compensation every time a flight is delayed, but only when the airline is responsible for the delay.

– The key question to get money is not how long I waited, but whose fault it is. A delay of three hours or more opens the right to compensation, but only if the cause is not beyond the company’s control – states the interviewee of the Morning Show.

Referring to the method of calculating delays, he explains that many passengers do not know that the time of departure is not taken into account, but the time of arrival at the final destination.

– Practically, if the plane takes off later, but makes up for the time during the flight, there is no basis for compensation. On the other hand, if due to rerouting, strikes or other circumstances it arrives at its destination later, the right to compensation can be realized – believes the editor of the Tango Six portal.

Speaking about the changes being considered at the European Union level, he notes that the biggest changes do not relate to the amount of compensation, but to procedures that should be simpler and more efficient.

Direktorat civilnog vazduhoplovstva Srbije

Petar Vojinović

air traffic passenger rights

damages in air traffic

flight delays

ECAA

compensation for passengers in air traffic