Air Passenger Rights

ERA Policy & Action

ERA believes that air passengers should have the same (or equivalent) legal rights as other consumers, including passengers across all modes of transport. ERA opposes legislation which a) considers air passengers to be a unique category of consumer, b) has not been evaluated for its impact on air carriers and its impact on passengers, or c) has been prepared without input from specialists including representatives of both airlines and passengers.

Current Status

Passengers across all modes of transport (air, rail, ferry and bus/coach) are now protected under EU law, although the Regulation governing bus/coach (EU Reg 181/2011) does not come into effect until 01 March 2013. The European Commission's intention was to ensure equality of rights for passengers across all modes. However this goal has not been achieved and passengers have different rights depending on what mode of transport they choose, leading to further confusion for consumers.

What is clear is that passengers are better protected on airlines than on any other mode of transport! ERA has produced a comparison document of the rights of passengers across all modes which can be accessed from the 'Public Documents' section below.

Latest News

On 19 December 2011 the European Commission (EC) released the so-called "horizontal communication" to the European Parliament and the Council on passenger rights in different transport modes.

The horizontal communication is aimed at: helping carriers towards a more coherent and effective application of EU law; supporting national authorities towards a more harmonised enforcement of passenger protection across all modes; assisting passengers towards a better understanding of their minimum quality service rights.

The document lists and discusses 10 basic rights for passengers stemming from the three pillars of the applicable legislation: non-discrimination; accurate, timely and accessible information; immediate and proportionate assistance.

The Communication concludes that the main issues with the existing regime are: poor passenger awareness of their rights and the inconsistent application of legislation by the different national authorities across Europe. A special section is focussed on intermodality and calls for easier re-routing and better information on intermodal connections notably in case of massive transport disruptions. The Communication does not make any formal proposals for regulatory change.

Action for Members

The issue of Passenger Rights is discussed within the ERA Industry Affairs Group (IAG) which is open to any employee from an ERA member organisation. For further details on the IAG, please click on the link below.

About the ERA Industry Affairs Group

Public Documents

Please click here to view ERA Position papers and other publicly available documents on Air Passenger Rights, including ERA's Comparison of Passenger Rights by Transport Mode.