As millions of EU citizens plan their summer holidays, the European Parliament this week gave the green light to an overhaul of air passenger rights, which have been in force since 2004 and will now be updated for the first time in 22 years.
The rules seek to ensure passengers are sufficiently protected against travel disruption, such as denied boarding and delayed or cancelled flights. An overwhelming majority of 646 members of the European Parliament voted in favour of the new rules during Tuesday's plenary session, meaning the bloc now has a new rulebook.
“It’s the biggest improvement in passenger rights since the beginning of this century,” the European Parliament's lead negotiator, Member of the European Parliament Andrey Novakov (EPP, Bulgaria), told Euronews. “Today we have rights that won’t stay on the ground when you take off.”
The final deal, agreed by the European Parliament and the EU Council last month, had been on the negotiating table since the European Commission proposed a revision of the air passenger rights framework in 2013.
'Real progress, but not what we hoped for'
