By Martin Banks - 11th March 2010
This ruling has potentially massive implications for airlines
Brian Simpson
Senior UK MEP Brian Simpson has called on the airline industry to improve the way it communicates with passengers.
Speaking at a conference in parliament, the Socialist deputy said,"We know there will always be times when airlines lose a passenger's luggage.
"But the key thing is that the airlines communicate with passengers to keep them duly informed," said Simpson, who chairs parliament's committee on transport and tourism.
"This is the same for delays, cancellations as well as lost luggage," he told the conference on air passenger rights.
Simpson chaired the meeting that saw presentations from airlines, airport representatives and passenger/consumer groups on the airline-passenger relationship.
The aim, he said, was to take stock of the legislation on air passenger rights that has come into force over the last five years.
It was also an opportunity, he added, to hear views on how this legislation was working both from the airline and passenger side and to see if there were any legislative improvements that need to be made.
Issues covered included delays, cancellation, baggage issues, the measures taken to facilitate passengers with reduced mobility needs and the question of supplying government agencies with passengers’ personal data.
Simpson said, "It became clear during the meeting that for the most part the "high street end" of the industry is getting it right in terms of customer satisfaction and that the real issues lie with the low cost carriers, who were not represented at the conference.
"This is not to say that there are not improvements to be made on the major airlines' side in terms of lost baggage and improving their care of passengers with reduced mobility."
Another issue discussed was a recent European Court of Justice ruling on the air passenger rights regulation, in particular the issue of compensation for delayed flights which was not covered by the original legislation.
Simpson said, "This ruling has potentially massive implications for airlines paying out compensation to flights delayed for more than three hours.
"The big issue from parliament's side, as legislator, is that it gives an interpretation to the legislation that was not intended by the legislators."
Another speaker, Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, of Air France, said that "many improvements have been made to the conditions for disabled passengers.
Lefebvre, the company's service coordinator for special needs passengers, said, "Most airlines routinely and continuously train their cabin crews to handle disabled passengers and many have put in place comprehensive training programmes for their ground staff."
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