EU LAW

EU Law

EU Law

The European Union passed legislation to discourage poor service to passengers on ferries on account of delays and cancellations. The EC Regulation is establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, is due to enter force across the European Community. Member States are required to ensure and supervise general compliance by their air carriers with this legislation and to lay down rules on sanctions applicable to infringements that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. (Christine 2009:36-74)

In order to ensure compliance with the provisions of the EC Regulation in the UK, the Government has prepared the attached draft Civil Aviation (Compensation and Assistance) Regulations, which set out new offences and penalties for non-compliance, and upon which we seek your views. (Nanda 2009:5)

In addition to the above sanctions, the UK is also required to designate a body responsible for the enforcement of the new EC Regulation, and to receive complaints about alleged infringements. While the same body could in principle perform both roles, we propose to keep these functions separate.

Drawing on the experience of both the Civil Aviation Authority's Consumer Protection Group (CPG) and the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) in the field of aviation consumer protection, it is proposed to designate the CPG as the UK's enforcement body, and the AUC as the UK's designated complaints body for this legislation. This consultation exercise is undertaken in accordance with the principles of the Government's code of Practice on written consultation. It follows the consultation criteria set out in the Code. Comments will be available for inspection at Great Minster House unless you specifically state that you wish your comments to be treated in confidence.

A flight may generally be considered as cancelled when the flight number changes for the same route for which Britney has a contract on a specific day and time schedule. A flight may experience such a long delay that it departs the day after it was scheduled and may therefore be given an annotated flight number (e.g. XX 1234a instead of XX 1234) to distinguish it from the flight of the same number on that subsequent day.

However, in this case, it could still be considered as a delayed flight and not a cancellation provided the delayed flight departs before the next flight on that subsequent day, where there is a scheduled flight that day. In their assessment of a particular case, Albion Ferries Ltd may determine a maximum delay value which could take into account frequency of flights and distance from destination.

The Regulation does not apply to non-EU air carriers' flights into the EU. The Regulation applies to operating air carriers licensed in a Member State of the EU (Community carrier) flying from outside the EU into the EU and to passengers (including non EU citizens) using such flights. However, these passengers are not entitled to the provisions of the Regulation where benefits or compensation and assistance are given on the basis of ...