| The European Commission is scheduled to unveil new passenger mobility legislation on Wednesday (29 November), with the package aimed partly at improving passenger rights for flyers in a post-COVID world. Travelling by plane during the pandemic was a stressful ordeal for even the most seasoned jetsetters. Beyond the fear of catching the virus itself when entering a public area (each errant cough enough to invite alarmed stares), permissions around entering and exiting countries changed rapidly. National health authorities kept an updated list of countries that should not be visited, lest travellers expose themselves to infection. And in a bid to keep out infected travellers, some nations essentially shuttered their borders. For passengers, this meant that flights could be cancelled suddenly. Naturally, this led to a torrent of refund requests from airlines already struggling with a nosedive in demand. Customers were often left waiting for months to receive their refund, unsure when it would reach them. While airlines tended to process refunds in full at the start of the pandemic, the sheer volume of cancellations saw companies change tack – soon they began offering vouchers in lieu of cash. Was this legal under EU law? The line was blurry enough that companies felt they were justified in their stance. The situation became more opaque when online booking intermediaries were involved, with question marks over who was responsible for processing the refund. Customers reported a type of infuriating ping pong between the intermediaries and the operators. And there was always the fear that companies, particularly travel agencies, would file for bankruptcy amid the travel crash, meaning the chances of recovering funds dropped to almost nil. Regulators in the European Union took notice, pledging to update the passengers’ rights framework and prevent a repeat of the refund chaos that took place in 2020 and 2021. A plan was drawn up to strengthen passenger rights aspects that the pandemic had exposed as weak. Tomorrow’s announcement is expected to include clearer refund rules, a standardisation of complaint forms, and stronger reporting obligations for airlines to authorities. | 