Help stranded passengers in the event of airline insolvency!

According to the forecast presented by the European Commission, the average number of passengers affected by airline insolvency in Europe will rise up to 480.000, in 2020. Basing on the recent statistics, it can be presumed that about 12 % of them will be stranded on the airports, far away from home. We think that this relatively small group of passengers (according to Eurostat data from 2011, currently, in EU, it is 39.000 people out of 777 million people traveling by planes) should have bigger protection and should be provided with immediate help. Especially, because they are entitled to these rights under regulation (EC) No 261/2004, and the expected help will facilitate their fast return to their homes.

At the same time, we point out that in case of carrier’s insolvency and sudden suspension of the airline operations, the passengers will have to use offer of other carriers. What is more, the market of air services, or to be precise, demand on the routes which were operated by the insolvent carrier,  will remain to be satisfied. Passengers who used these lines, in most cases, will still keep using them. They will choose air services which provide the most convenient way of traveling (on the same or similar line).

Therefore, we call for starting a legislative work, which will obligate European air carriers to provide transportation for the passengers who started journey (those who possess return ticket of airlines which in the meantime stopped operating due to insolvency in EU). Due to specially hard and precarious situation of passengers stranded on the European airports, far away from home, we think that providing this group of passengers with protection and care should be a high-level goal.