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At the beginning of June 2025, the Polish Council President, who is still in office, initiated a fast-track procedure. This will be followed by a 'short marathon', as a legislative proposal summarising the new content must be submitted within four months. At the end of June, the Polish Council Presidency will end and be taken over by Denmark. They will continue the procedure, as has already been explained by the Council President who will be responsible for it.

One agenda item is the point at which the airline must pay compensation. Until now, the time limit has been three hours. Therefore, if you were kept waiting for three hours or more, you could claim compensation under the Passenger Rights Regulation. Germany and Bulgaria, for example, are in favour of not increasing this time period, allowing compensation to be claimed for delays of three hours or more. This takes into account not only consumer protection, but also the unreasonableness of waiting for such a long time without receiving compensation, as the Bulgarian parliamentarian has explained.

Incidentally, the EU Commission has proposed increasing this limit to five hours. Airlines were also in favour of this as it would give them more time to arrange alternative transport. According to the European airline association Airlines for Europe (A4E), around 70% of cancelled flights could still take place within this time. This should be in everyone's interest. However, this would undermine consumer protection so severely that it would be unacceptable. As a rule, delays are between two and four hours. An increase to five hours would therefore be unacceptable.

The next topic to take centre stage is hand luggage. According to a 2014 ruling by the European Court of Justice, hand baggage is such an integral part of passenger travel that it should not incur an additional charge. However, the question of interpretation has been controversial ever since. Does this only include backpacks, or also small handbags? Or must this now be paid for separately?

The Council now favours allowing only one small personal item or one small piece of luggage to be carried. Parliamentarians, on the other hand, demand that hand luggage should be permitted free of charge. They propose that passengers should be allowed to carry a small suitcase (100 cm x 100 cm x 100 cm) and a small backpack. The suitcase would be stored in the overhead compartment and the backpack under the seat. However, the airlines see this as a restriction on their commercial freedom and are rejecting the idea of free hand luggage. They argue that they would then have to increase the base fare — even the cheapest one — to compensate for the loss they would suffer by not charging for additional hand luggage. This would not be in the interests of the airlines or travellers.

It remains to be seen what will happen next.

What is clear is that there will be more transparency in the event of cancellations or delays. Passengers will be given direct access to the compensation form. However, the deadline for submitting a claim will be reduced to six months.

 

 

Source: Pixabay/Aircraft-1362586_1280