Proposed new EU laws will give Irish passengers more rights when booking flights through an intermediary, when booking a package holiday and for those travelling with a disability.
Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú has been appointed the Chief Negotiator, of the Renew political grouping, in the European Parliament on new laws which will strengthen passenger rights and better protect Irish holiday makers against disruptions during their journey. Her appointment comes as a new study, by Irish travel insurance firm Multitrip.com, shows that 70% of Irish holidaymakers are planning to travel outside of peak summer times in a bid to save money on their holidays.
According to Ní Mhurchú, the Covid pandemic highlighted many weaknesses in how passengers were treated by travel and tour companies,
“During the pandemic, consumers faced mass cancellations and often struggled to get refunds from tour operators and travel agencies for cancelled packages. These new proposed laws will look to add protections for travellers with a disability, those booking package holidays and those booking flights through an intermediately service. We will formulate new rules to protect passengers using different types of transport, like buses, trains, and planes, all in one trip, including on minimum connecting times between different transport services”
New protections for those booking package holidays
Ní Mhurchú said the European Parliament learned a lot from the collapse of British tour operator Thomas Cook in 2019 when it declared bankruptcy on a Sunday evening leaving hundreds of thousands of Irish and British travellers stranded, putting 21,000 jobs at risk. The new laws will look to bolster insolvency protection in the event of something like this happening again. Other new measures for package holiday bookings include that upfront deposits paid on package holidays cannot be more than 25% of the overall package price, except in cases where a package tour operator can justify a higher deposit based on extenuating circumstances.
Under the proposals, package holiday operators may not ask for the total payment for the holiday earlier than 28 days before the start of the trip. Those travelling under a package holiday will also receive clearer information on who is liable if there are problems with a cancellation of one part of the package, and their rights in that situation.
Travel with a disability
The new proposed EU laws will focus on improving passenger rights for those with disabilities. For example, airlines often oblige a passenger with disabilities to travel with a companion. This is because the passenger with a disability may need assistance to comply with aviation safety requirements. Under these new proposals, the airline will be obliged to transport the accompanying person free of charge, and when practical, seat this person next to the passenger they are assisting. This right already exists when travelling by rail, ship or bus.
Seamless Travel
The new laws will oblige travel providers to publish information which will make travel easier for passengers, such as whether bikes can be taken onto a train, and whether the mode of transport is accessible or not.
13 billion passengers travel by plane, train, bus or ferry in the EU every year.
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