Airlines face tougher EU rules aimed to boost passenger rights
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The European Union tomorrow will impose the world's toughest rules on airlines for passenger rights, potentially requiring refunds and penalty payments even if a flight is canceled or significantly delayed by bad weather or mechanical problems. The system would be the world's first to cover situations that have traditionally been considered outside an airline's control.
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British Airways will face tougher competition on some of its most profitable routes after the Civil Aviation Authority yesterday announced its decision on lucrative additional
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The United States has sent to the European Union a draft agreement on the transfer of airline passenger data after negotiations to avert a showdown that could have paralyzed transatlantic traffic.
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E.U. countries scaled back a proposal to regulate airline emissions, but agreed on measures likely to intensify a battle with the United States over  environmental regulation.
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Several new or evolving plans recognize that the usual airline loyalty programs may not be enough for the extreme air traveler.
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The stranding of hundreds of passengers aboard JetBlue Airways Corp. planes for up to 10 hours on Wednesday has revived calls to enact an airline customer rights law.
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The EU and US take a large step towards a deal that will open the airline industry to greater competition.
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Six airlines have asked US authorities for anti-trust immunity on trans-Atlantic services within the framework of an &quot;open skies&quot; agreement between the European Union and United States.
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EU and U.S. negotiators made "decisive progress" in talks aimed at lifting restrictions on what trans-Atlantic routes airlines can offer, the European Union said Friday.
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BRUSSELS (SwissInfo) - The European Union's top justice official has proposed tougher anti-terror measures, including gathering data from airline passengers flying into the 27-nation union. But EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said to avoid any "security loopholes" in the event of the measures coming into force in 2010, he would like non-EU member Switzerland and other Schengen states to agree to his plan. The most controversial of the Italian's plans - which would have to be approved by EU governments - calls for EU nations to adopt EU-wide airline security measures similar to those used by the United States, storing a long list of passenger data that would be retained for 13 years. Only those passengers flying into or out of the EU would be affected - those flying inside the EU would not. As Switzerland is not in the EU, passengers flying into and out of Switzerland would have their data collected.  Currently, only three EU states - Britain, Denmark and France - have rules to collect and use Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, but their national systems vary substantially.
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The United States has reassured the European Union that it will continue to apply restrictions on the way it uses air passenger data until the two sides conclude a new agreement, an EU spokesman said on Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - A failure by the U.S. and European Union to reach a new agreement next month on the provision passenger data for transatlantic flights could ground up to 105,000 people each week, the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) director general said Thursday. The two sides need to reach a new accord by the end of September, after the European Court of Justice ruled in May that the current agreement is unacceptable. That agreement calls for airlines to provide U.S. authorities with the names, addresses, ticket payment details, and telephone numbers of passengers on U.S.-bound flights. The EU'sÂ highest court ruledÂ that there was no "appropriate legal basis" for the deal, and said it would cease to be valid from October. If a new agreement isn't reached before then, airlines will be forced to decide whether to continue providing the information in violation of European privacy law, withhold the information in violation of U.S. law, orÂ ground flights to avoid breaking any law, said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and CEO of IATA, at a news conference in Tokyo. "I hope that there will be an agreement because I know that the cooperation between the Homeland Security and European Union is strong and effective," he said. "I think there is time to find a decision," Bisignani said. "It's not up to me to say which is the best decision. It's up to me to say I look forward to increased cooperation and increased discussion between the two parties because we cannot be in a situation on Sept. 30 when we have to make the decision which law to break." Bisignani's comments came two days after U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff wrote in The Washington Post that the U.S. needs continued access to the personal information on passengers, and also wants the rules relaxed on how the information can be used. The US Customs and Border Protection receives the information regularly, he wrote, but cannot share it freely with investigators in other Department of Homeland Security divisions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or with the Federal Bureau of Investigations -- "never mind with our allies in London." "This information might yet identify associates of those arrested in the plot in Britain, but the rules blind us in routinely searching for that connection," Chertoff wrote. The U.S. says the data allows them to identify certain passengers for additional screening when they arrive in the U.S. while reducing the amount of time spent on screening low-risk passengers.
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(InfoWorld) - An agreement sheltering airlines from European privacy laws, allowing them to hand over passenger data required by U.S. authorities, expired Saturday, leaving most European airlines in legal limbo. NoÂ disruption to flightsÂ has been reported so far. However, if the legal void remains for more than a week or so, airlinesÂ face being suedÂ by individuals or groups in Europe, said Chris Kuner, a data protection specialist with the law firm Hunton & Williams. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. authorities demanded that airlines hand over passenger information covered by European Union data protection legislation. Airlines faced prosecution in the E.U. if they delivered the data, or fines in the U.S. if they don't. An agreement struck between the E.U. and U.S. in 2003 protected airlines from being sued for sharing the information, which includes names, addresses and credit card details. However, Europe's top court overturned the agreement in May and said it would become legally void at the end of last month. Efforts to negotiateÂ a replacement agreement intensified throughout September, but despite assurances of progress from both sides, the talks ended in impasse Saturday, as the deadline passed. As talks broke up, U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Chertoff made a draft proposal that European officials said may be discussed at a meeting of European justice ministers in Luxembourg on Friday. The Commission hopes an agreement will be reached that day. British Airways said that a Air Navigation Order issued by the U.K. government protects it legally in the absence of a new agreement. "The order from the government supercedes European data protection laws," said spokesman Richard Goodfellow. Air France spokeswoman Veronique Brachet said that although she was unaware of the French government issuing a similar order, her company would continue to supply the data to U.S. authorities and foresaw no disruption to its transatlantic flights. "The European Commission has said we can fly to the United States, so I see no problem," she said. Karim Retzer, a data protection specialist at the law firm Morrison & Foerster said airlines are unlikely to be sued. But Kuner, the lawyer with Hunton & Williams, warned that if the legal situation isn't resolved swiftly there is a danger that European data protection authorities will be forced to take action against the airlines. "The European Commission will probably ask the national data protection authorities (DPAs) not to take action, and will assure them that a new agreement is imminent, but if they fail to secure a new agreement within a week or so, there is a very real risk that a privacy group or even an individual passenger may lodge a formal complaint. This would force the DPA to take action," Kuner said. If a complaint was lodged then the DPA would order the airlines to withhold the information from U.S. authorities. If the airline obeyed then it would face fines of up to $6,000 per passenger in the U.S., and the possible withdrawal of landing rights there, Kuner said. Kuner said he was surprised by the failure to renegotiate the original agreement in time for the deadline at the end of September. "We were given the impression that it was simply a matter of changing the legal basis of the first agreement, and that no attempts to change the substance of the deal would be made," he said. However, last month Chertoff said the original agreement obstructed his efforts to maintain a high level of security. The agreement allowed for 34 categories of information to be handed over. The U.S. has been pushing to increase this number during the negotiations over the past month. "Chertoff is in a much stronger position to negotiate," Kuner said, adding: "He doesn't face any legal issues in the U.S., so he doesn't feel the same pressure to reach an agreement that his European counterparts feel."
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Efforts to free up transatlantic air services have hit a stalemate with recent U.S. elections expected to make it more difficult to push through new airline ownership laws needed to secure an "open skies" deal, a U.S. transport official said Wednesday.
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European Union officials are close to   agreeing new aviation security rules that would limit the   amount of liquids passengers can take on board flights but not   ban them outright, the EU transport chief said on Wednesday.
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Congress voted last year to prohibit passengers from bringing lighters and matches aboard commercial airplanes for security reasons, but figuring out how to institute the change has become more complicated.
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UK passengers to Spanish airports are advised to allow extra time to check in because of new security measures.