MANY AIRLINE passengers are not aware of their rights when it comes to issues including flight cancellations, delays, denial of boarding, and lost and damaged luggage.
A seminar was held in Limassol last night where all members of the travel and tourism industry and consumers were invited.
The event was organised by the European Consumer Centre of Cyprus (ECC). Director Phrosso Hadjiluca told the Mail that during a recent survey conducted by the centre, only one in six people were fully aware of their rights.
“Our role is to look into complaints received and to forward them on to the national enforcement authority. We always do our best in order to look after disgruntled passengers in the best way possible.”
The aim of the seminar was to bring everybody involved together in one place in order to inform them of the regulations and passenger’s rights.
According to the ECC, “more citizens are increasingly travelling within the EU every year for tourism, to visit relatives and friends, for professional reasons or for educational purposes. This has resulted in the establishment of the single market in aviation that is leading to lower fares, a wider choice of airlines and improvement of services offered to passengers.”
According to Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of transport, “the boom in air travel needs to be accompanied by proper protection of passengers’ rights. This is a concrete example of how the Union benefits people’s daily lives. Competitiveness and competition in the air sector go hand in hand with guaranteed passengers’ rights.”
Within this framework, the European Union in February 2004 enacted a set of rights to safeguard the correct way to deal with air passengers on all flights, including charters, operated by European airlines from or to a European airport and to any flight departing from the European Union.
Demetris Perdikis, Commercial Manager at Cyprus Airways and chairman of the Board of Airlines in Cyprus explained that, “each airline caters for its own passengers in their own personalised way. We at Cyprus Airways go beyond the regulations and give a personal service to our customers regarding any issue they may have and we have a team of professionals in place to do this.”
President of the Consumers’ Association, Petros Marcou said that people, “must be made aware of their rights. The more that we know, the more effective we can become in demanding the implementation of these rights.”
Airlines, tour operators, travel agents and all other services involved in aviation services must consequently respect the regulations.
If passengers believe that their rights have been violated or they have not been fully satisfied, they have to make this known to the airline or the tour operator.
If their demands are not satisfied, passengers may consult the ECC Cyprus at telephone number 22-867 177 or via e-mail at ecccyprus@ mcit.gov.cy
What are your rights?
The most important rights safeguarded by the current European legislation are summarised as follows:
Denial of Boarding
When the number of passengers exceeds the number of available seats, the airline must initially call on their customers to volunteer not to board that flight offering other benefits like the choice of a ticket refund (with a free return flight to the first point of departure, whenever this is possible) and securing an alternative way to their final destination. The other passengers are entitled to compensation.
Cancellations
In case of a cancellation by the airline the passenger should be given:
The choice between refund of ticket (with free return flight to the first point of departure, when relevant) or rerouting to final destination.
Free meals and refreshments, hotel accommodation and transport between airport and accommodation (whenever necessary) and a free phone call.
Compensation must be paid unless the passengers have been informed in time and they have been given an alternative solution-flight at the earliest opportunity.
Delays
When the airline predicts delay of a flight: it is obliged to provide to passengers a free meal and refreshments, hotel accommodation and transport between airport and accommodation (if departure is delayed until the next day) and a free telephone call. If the flight is delayed by more than five hours the airline is obliged to offer full reimbursement of the ticket within seven days or a return flight to the first point of departure as soon as possible.
Airlines are exempted from the obligation of compensation only in, ‘extraordinary circumstances’ when for unpredictable reasons outside their control they are in no position to prevent the delay (for example security reasons, unwarned strikes, etc.). However, even in these cases, the airlines are obliged to provide information and care to the passengers.
Baggage
Air passengers are also entitled to compensation for loss, destruction or delay of baggage as well as in cases of death or injury when the airline is responsible.
In addition to the above, passengers that have purchased tour packages may seek compensation from their tour operator, provided the latter is in no position to provide the services agreed.
