MEPs yesterday voted to double cash compensation payments for air passengers who are "bumped off" flights in an attempt to counter deliberate overbooking by airlines.
Maximum payouts of €600 were agreed for passengers who lose out as a result of overbooking of flights and new laws will bring in a scale of compensation for undue delays as well.
The new compensation levels bear no relation to the price paid for the air ticket despite intense lobbying by budget airlines that the two should be linked.
Subject to final approval from EU governments, compensation for affected flights of 1,500 km or less will be set at €250, with €400 for flights between 1,500 km and 3,500km and €600 for longer flights to destinations outside the EU.
In addition, passengers facing "significant" departure delays will have the legal right to meals, refreshment and hotel accommodation, if necessary, while they wait.
Under the new rules, the compensation for delays will be triggered after two hours for short-haul flights, after three hours for flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km and after four hours for longer flights.
The European Commission had originally proposed penalties of up to €1,500.
With some flights now available at very cheap prices, budget airlines have argued that it is wrong to offer passengers many times as much if they suffer inconvenience.
Airlines will also have to publish monthly statistics on their service record, creating US-style league tables on lost luggage, flight delays, denied boarding and passenger complaints.
However, the MEPs, who were meeting in Strasbourg, voted against plans to introduce American-style "name and shame" performance scoreboards which would chart the record of the airlines on delays, overbooking and even lost or misplaced luggage. - (PA)