European Low Fares Airlines Association Demands EU to Confirm Compensation

It now seems that the European Low Fares Airlines Association has renewed its request to European Union Transport Ministers to grant compensation to airlines after the ash crisis. This comes following the recommendation from the European Commission vice president, Siim Kallas, saying that airlines should be granted some sort of compensation, along with the relaxing of aviation rules to make the recovery much smoother.

European Union Transport Ministers are meeting this week in Brussels to agree on the measures to be taken. The European Low Fares Airlines Association said that compensation for airlines for losses sustained as a direct result of the closure of airspace should be acted upon by states promptly and in an equitable manner.

The European Low Fares Airlines Association did say that the compensation for airlines must be limited to the actual losses they incurred and not used as a cover for further support by states of ailing carriers. Included in the compensation must be the significant outlays incurred by airlines, honoring their obligations to assist passengers.

The secretary general of the European Low Fares Airlines Association, John Hanlon, said that the current regulations on how much airlines should assist passengers whose flights are canceled are inappropriate and must be amended. He said that regulations were conceived to penalize isolated bad practices by airlines, such as the cancellation for commercial reasons. This rule was not made to punish the whole industry due to a closing of airspace. It patently cannot be applied to natural disasters, which in this case, led to the cancellation of over 100,000 flights.