BRUSSELS, June 15 (Reuters) – European lawmakers agreed on Monday to European Union member states’ proposal to keep the current three-hour flight delay threshold for compensation \u200cin the EU’s next set of airline passenger rights, ending a decade-long \u200cdebate.<\/p>\n
The 27 member states had agreed on Friday to maintain the current level of compensation that airlines must \u200bpay passengers in case of delays.<\/p>\n
The European Commission, the EU executive, proposed more than a decade ago to reduce the amounts passengers were entitled to. The issue had pitted airlines, which demanded more flexibility to remain competitive, against consumer protection associations. Both sides lobbied \u200cEU institutions for years.<\/p>\n
Under rules \u2060in place since 2004, passengers on flights delayed by more than three hours can claim compensation from \u20ac250 ($290.05) up to \u20ac600, depending on the length \u2060of the flight.<\/p>\n
The Commission had proposed to raise the threshold for compensation to four hours and member states had sought to cap the amount at \u20ac500, although after years of debate, \u200bEU countries \u200band the European Parliament finally agreed on a \u200bstatus quo.<\/p>\n
On the other contentious issue – \u200cthe fees charged by some airlines for carry-on baggage – the member states and parliament agreed to let airlines charge for larger bags, provided they allow free small bags and they include fees for cabin bags in their basic ticket price, with the possibility of offering discounts to consumers who opt out. The measure intends to improve price \u200ctransparency and comparability.<\/p>\n
Those fees have been widely criticized \u200bby consumer rights associations around the EU, triggering a \u200bpolitical battle in 2024, when the \u200bSpanish Consumer Rights Ministry fined budget airlines \u20ac179 million for charging them. \u200cThe airlines are appealing against the fine.<\/p>\n
The \u200bcountries have also \u200bkept in place rules that allow an accompanying adult to sit near a child without paying a fee and that force airlines to grant more services in \u200bcases of missed connections.<\/p>\n
They \u200calso prevented airlines from forcing passengers to download a mobile phone app to \u200bget a boarding pass, a practice Ryanair introduced in November.<\/p>\n
($1 = 0.8619 euros)<\/p>\n
(Reporting \u200bby Inti Landauro; Editing by Susan Fenton)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUSSELS, June 15 (Reuters) – European lawmakers agreed on Monday to European Union member states’ proposal to keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,39021,42758,2610,54911,54912,5596],"class_list":["post-108444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-compensation","tag-eu-institutions","tag-european-commission","tag-european-union-member-states","tag-flight-delay","tag-passengers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116755618144664939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}