EU wants skies control as airlines question passengers' rights

An extraordinary meeting of EU Transport Ministers will be convened to discuss the after-math of the volcano cloud crisis amid demands being made by passengers, airlines and airport management companies.

The meeting, called by the EU's Spanish Presidency, will enable member states to discuss issues related to financial compensation owed to millions of stranded passengers.

The meeting to be held on May 4 will primarily focus on the need to fast-track negotiations between member states to create a super air-traffic control authority, which would have the clout to coordinate the different air spaces controlled by individual states.

The EU's Transport Commissioner, Siim Kallas, said it was no longer feasible to have 27 different authorities controlling the European skies. This made it more difficult for the EU to react in a timely manner when faced with a crisis similar to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud experienced last week.

The EU was planning to wrap up negotiations on a new European air-traffic regulator by the end of 2012. However, according to Mr Kallas, Europe cannot afford to wait that long.

Thousands of flights were cancelled and millions of passengers stranded for days as European airspace was almost completely shut down due to the ash cloud.

Malta, almost totally dependent on air transport, was badly affected. Hotels ended up with a number of empty rooms and flights to and from the island were scaled down.

According to Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco, the crisis meant the island was visited by 13,000 fewer tourists, while Air Malta, which last year already reported a €31 million loss, said it lost €3.5 million in revenue.

During the crisis, Air Malta made alternative arrangements so that hundreds of Maltese stranded abroad could be brought back to the island via alternative routes particularly with extra flights from Rome.

However, it is not yet known how much compensation the airline owes to stranded passengers, particularly for accommodation.

According to EU laws, apart from offering passengers a free re-routing service, the airline will also have to compensate its passengers for extra costs incurred due to the cancellation of flights, particularly in meals, beverages and accommodation.

Though Air Malta said that during the crisis it had beefed up its customer services, particularly through more staff at its call centre, many stranded Maltese travellers complained to The Sunday Times that this service left much to be desired.

"I was stuck in Brussels for four days as Air Malta didn't operate any flights. Every day I had to wait for at least 45 minutes on an overseas call to the customer service department before someone answered the phone and changed my booking," one stranded passenger said.

A 29-year-old lawyer said: "I hope that my telephone bills are also compensated by Air Malta. In three days, I spent two hours on the phone listening to recorded music on Air Malta's customer service line."

Meanwhile, many European airlines and airport management companies are now complaining about the EU's 'unfair' passengers' rights and are openly starting to challenge these rules.

The Commission has said since the beginning of the crisis that there is no question of allowing exceptions to the regulation. There is now a virtual standoff between air carriers and the Commission.

Mr Kallas said the Commission would be watching to see whether airlines were honouring passengers' rights and would take action against those who did not comply.

In Malta's case the regulator which should uphold EU rules is Transport Malta, which recently took over the functions of the Civil Aviation Department.