Compensation and assistance to air passengers

Article 16 of EC Regulation 261/2004 on confers increased protections on most air passengers flying into or out of Community airports for delay caused by denied boarding, cancellation or long delay. Article 16 requires member states to ‘designate a body responsible for the enforcement of this Regulation … Where appropriate, this body shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the rights of passengers are respected.’ Given that the consumer rights are intended to deal with the immediate effects of flight delays, Article 16 might be understood as meaning that certainly in larger airports the ‘enforcer’ should actually be located in the airport so as to be able to receive, respond and intervene on behalf of air passengers with airlines.However, the Irish government has not taken this view and has designated a state aviation body (the Commission for Aviation Regulation, rather than the consumer protection body) whose offices are based in downtown Dublin, as the enforcer. The public has been informed of this by the same newspaper and website notice http://www.aviationreg.ie/rights/notices.htm which says passengers may complain in writing or electronically to the city centre address. Fax will also be accepted.Does the failure to locate the enforcer at a busy airport like Dublin amount to a failure to implement Article 16?(Originally posted by Marc Mc Donald)

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