The European Disability Forum (EDF) has provided feedback to the European Commission’s public consultation on passenger rights.
We welcome the European Commission’s willingness to improve the implementation of the passenger rights legislation and to address some of the existing gaps. We also agree with the relevance of the issues highlighted: better financial protection for passengers, improved enforcement, and passenger rights in the multimodal context.
Through EDF’s response, we have explained the specific challenges that persons with disabilities face in some of these areas:
- In enforcement we have drawn the attention to the lack of accessible means of information and communication, the lack of resources and disability-related training of some National Enforcement Bodies and the long – and sometimes unsuccessful – reimbursement and compensation processes.
- In multimodality, we have asked for the coverage of passenger rights throughout the journey, the establishment of single booking of assistance, and the accessibility of information and complaint mechanisms.
Although we recognize that the issues highlighted by the Commission in this consultation are extremely relevant for passengers, we also believe that there are key issues for persons with disability and reduced mobility that remain unaddressed. Some of them include the denial of boarding to persons with disabilities, the quality of assistance, the lack of accessibility related to passenger rights and the liability for lost or damaged mobility equipment / assistive devices, specially in air travel.
In our response we have called the Commission to take them into consideration, to explore the possibility of making reimbursement/ compensation automatic and to introduce compensation in the event of delay or no-provision of assistance.
Download our reply below
- EDF Reply to Passenger Rights Public Consultation (Word)
- EDF Reply to Passenger Rights Public Consultation (PDF)
Contact
Daniel Casas Ballester, EDF Accessibility Officer
daniel.casas@edf-feph.org