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(Adds EU official comment)
PARIS, June 10 (Reuters) - European airlines said on
Thursday they will seek to weaken passenger compensation and
refund rights in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which left
the industry struggling to reimburse billions of euros in fares
for grounded flights.
Airlines for Europe (A4E), which represents the region's
biggest carriers, said the so-called EU261 regulation had
severely exacerbated the financial crisis for many airlines.
"We're looking for a more balanced approach to consumer
protection," Air France-KLM Chief Executive Ben Smith said,
adding that the European Union's passenger rights law was "one
of the most punitive" in the world.
EU rules grant consumers immediate cash refunds for
cancelled flights, plus compensation for those scrapped with
less than two weeks' notice or for delays of over three hours.
Multibillion-euro refund bills exacerbated the cash crunch for
many airlines early in the pandemic.
"When events like mass cancellations get put in place this
law is not flexible enough to handle such events," Smith said at
an A4E virtual news conference, joined by the heads of easyJet
, IAG, Lufthansa and Ryanair.
The European Commission indicated it was not ready to
consider any weakening of passenger rights.
"We have always tried to strike the right balance between
consumer protection and the protection of the tourism and
transport industry," an EU official said. "The continued and
improved protection of passenger rights is crucial to ensuring
the necessary consumer trust in the transport sector."
The airlines also indicated that they plan to contest air
traffic control fee increases agreed by EU governments last
month to make up the effective monopoly service providers'
crisis shortfall, with easyJet's CEO hinting at legal action.
"We are going to legally try this," said Johan Lundgren, who
is the current A4E chairman. "Amazingly these monopoly air
navigation service providers are being allowed to pass on 5.4
billion euros to airlines and to our customers," he said.
(Reporting by Laurence Frost, Sarah Young and Marine Strauss
Editing by Mark Heinrich and Mark Potter)
