18th December 2009: Yorkshire and Humber Labour MEP Backs Moves to Give Compensation for Internet Airline Bookings

Yorkshire & Humber Euro-MP Linda McAvan is backing moves to get the European Union (EU) to strengthen help for holidaymakers caught out when airlines go bust – despite opposition from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, which includes the British Conservatives. 

The recent collapse of Scottish airline, Flyglobespan, has left 4,500 holidaymakers currently stranded abroad and worrying how they can get back home for Christmas and the New Year.  The EU’s Package Travel Directive (PTD) covers consumers purchasing flights as part of a package holiday, meaning that around 1,100 people are covered for repatriation back to the UK.  In addition, anyone who has booked flights as part of a package holiday but who has not yet embarked is able to get a refund for any money they have paid for flights to-date.  Yet the Directive does not currently cover those purchasing stand-alone flights, despite millions of people booking flights in this way via the internet, meaning many of the 3,400 who flew abroad with Flyglobespan will have to find their own way home.      

“The PTD gave real peace of mind to holiday makers when it was passed in 1990, when most people booked flights as part of package holidays.  However, it’s now hopelessly out of date when you consider that 56% of all EU citizens now book each part of their holiday separately over the internet.  That’s why I recently backed calls from MEPs for the European Commission to change the PTD to cover all flights purchased. 

“People in our region work hard to save for a chance to get away or visit family and friends, and it’s simply unfair that people can be left out of pocket when an airline goes bust, with no way to go on holiday or return home, through no fault of their own.  Almost all MEPs backed a resolution calling for the PTD to be changed to cover all flights purchased – only the Conservative group have opposed it.”

A total of 77 airlines had filed for bankruptcy in the European Union since 2000, prior to the collapse of Flyglobespan, with high oil prices and the global economic recession hitting airlines hard.  Thousands of holiday makers, who fly from Leeds/Bradford, Doncaster/Sheffield and Humberside airports, using airline tickets largely booked over the internet, would benefit from the proposed changes.