Joe Biden wants to force airlines to compensate passengers in cash for flight delays or cancellations.
This week, President Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, the US Transportation Secretary, announced plans to introduce new rules this year that would force airlines to pay for the travel disruptions they cause.
Following waves of outages that forced Southwest Airlines to cancel 16,700 flights over the winter break, the US president would like the kind of protections that Europeans (and non-Europeans flying in Europe) have enjoyed for nearly 20 years. years.
The goal is to provide cash refunds for significant delays or cancellations. Joe Biden also wants travelers to be compensated for meal, hotel, ground transportation and rebooking costs.
The United States wants to catch up
Currently, US airlines are not required to offer cash compensation for delays or cancellations. They must compensate passengers who are victims of overbooking. But that is not enough according to Joe Biden. “You deserve to be fully compensated. Your time matters. The impact on your life matters,” he says.
US carriers have long opposed compensation laws. “Airlines already have financial incentives to get their passengers to their destination as planned,” said Willie Walsh, director general of Iata.
Steer Group, an independent consulting firm, calculated that in 2018, European airlines incurred a total of €5 billion in expenses to process the volume of compensation claims. For each passenger obtaining compensation, the airline incurred an average cost of 138 euros.
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2023-05-16 11:27:00
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