EU Commission: more rights for people travelling across Europe. 13 billion passengers on planes, trains, buses or ferries each year

The Commission has today adopted a series of proposals “designed to improve the experience of passengers and travellers by strengthening their rights”. According to the Commission, the new rules will build on “lessons learned, including the recent experiences of the COVID-19 crisis and the bankruptcy of the travel group Thomas Cook in 2019, which had a major impact both on travellers and on the travel market”. In particular, “they will clarify rules on reimbursement when flights or multimodal journeys are booked via an intermediary”. They will also provide for “smoother journeys, especially those involving different travel services or transport modes, ensuring that passengers have access to direct support, and enhanced real-time information, for example on delays and cancellations”. Special attention is paid to the needs of passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility. The proposals adopted today focus on 3 aspects: stronger passenger rights; protection of “package travellers”; “better multimodal travel information services and the creation of a common European mobility data space”. The Commission notes that some 13 billion passengers travelling each year in the EU by plane, train, coach, bus or ferry are covered by EU passenger rights, and many more use local transport. This figure is expected to reach 15 billion by 2030 and almost 20 billion by 2050.
Valentina Bombelli