Airline passengers travelling to and from Ireland and across the EU will lose some key rights when it comes to flight delays due to changes to the regulations governing air travel agreed by the European Union Council yesterday.
However some other modifications agreed will bolster passenger rights and make it harder for airlines to sidestep compensation claims.
A meeting of EU transport ministers agreed to increase the amount of time passengers will have to wait before claiming compensation for delayed flights.
People will only be able to apply for compensation for short and medium-haul flights delayed for over four hours while and six hours for long-haul flights.
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Currently, passengers can apply for compensation if a flight departs more than three hours behind schedule.
Ministers also agreed, as part of revisions to 31 different air passenger rights, to increase the amount of compensation for those delayed on short-haul flights from €250 to €300, but cut it for long-haul flights from €600 to €500.
Forms for compensation are to be automated while restrictions to grounds for denying reimbursement are to be rolled out with more responsibility to be put on airlines for rerouting and accommodation.
The revision of the EU’s air passenger rights was first proposed in 2013 by the European Commission, but it has taken 12 years for EU states to come to an agreement on the time frame for compensation.
Mandating a longer delay threshold would give airlines a “fighting chance to minimise delays and avoid flight cancellations”, the industry body Airlines for Europe (A4E) said in a letter to the German minister for transport this week.
The European Commission originally proposed extending the time to five hours for short-haul flights and nine for long-haul but ministers ultimately veered away from delivering the politically unpalatable message that passengers will have to lose out.
The owner and editor of TravelExtra Eoghan Corry said EU261 was long overdue an update and he noted that the changes agreed would “leave both consumers and airlines grumpy”.
He said average fares could fall by around €8 if the changes come into effect.
“Airlines have argued that the compensation system is a blunt instrument and that there are better ways of working it. They lobbied very heavily for the threshold changes.”
He said the changes will mean “Irish passengers won’t get anything in compensation if a flight is delayed by less than four hours so we’ve lost some rights in that respect.”
There will be no changes in the short term as the proposals have to be assessed by the European Parliament before the Commission implements modifications. “Ultimately it is the European Commission that decides so we’re looking at 2026 at the earliest before passengers notice any difference,” Mr Corry said. Additional reporting The Financial Times Limited
