European Union Puts Pressure on Airlines to Give Compensation to Stranded Passengers

It now seems that airlines are under all kinds of pressure from the European Union to pay compensation to passengers who were stranded by the volcanic ash. The European Union transport commissioner said that no carrier would be allowed to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals by refusing to obey European Union regulations on passengers’ rights.

So far an estimated 10 million people were stranded during a six day lock down of northern European airspace. This saw at least 100,000 flights grounded following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland. Under European Union rules, airlines are legally obliged to pick up the hotel bills of stranded passengers until they are in a position to get them home.

Airlines, who according to the European Union are now facing a bill of about £2.2 billion due to the volcanic ash, are arguing that these rules were not designed to cover the unprecedented circumstances of much of Europe being turned into a no-fly zone for nearly a week. At one point during all of this, Ryanair said that it would limit compensation it paid to the original cost of the plane ticket. However, this airline later backed down from this claim.

The European Union transport commissioner said that the European Union would ease state aid rules to allow government’s to provide some financial support to the industry. He went on to say that the European Union would draw up plans to overhaul the international safety regulations, which grounded aircraft because of the zero tolerance approach to volcanic ash in the skies.