Airline obligation for insolvency protection

In Europe, every year several airlines become insolvent. Thousands of passengers strand at foreign airports and see themselves obliged to organize their return trip at their own cost. Other passengers find their flight – which they already had paid a long time ago – cancelled, the tickets worthless, the money lost. Passengers constantly pay the bill.

This ruinous price war up in the air is not fought with airlines’ equity capital but client funds. Passengers are committed to pay the full ticket price months before departure. Airlines should actually use this money to prepare the already paid flight, in reality they try hard to fill yesterday’s gaps. Package tour operators are obliged to hand out risk coverage certificates to their clients before collecting down payments, thus vouching for the tour price or the journey home in case of operator’s insolvency. Airline’s clients do not enjoy securities of this sort. Passengers are obligated to pay the full cost at the time of booking. In case of airline bankruptcy the ticket is lost. Those who have not started yet still retain the possibilities to stay at home or to pay a second time at another airline. Passengers stranded in foreign countries have to finance their journey home at their own cost. (WIEDERHOLUNG! Siehe 1. Absatz) For years airlines and their associations have successfully been arguing against any obligation to assurance, justifying their stance with increasing ticket prices.

We demand that: a) airlines which offer tickets with departures within the EU are obligated to offer assurances in the form of risk coverage certificates to their passengers before the ticket price is increased. b) If no assurance is granted only a 10% deposit on booking may be collected, the balance is due the day of departure.