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Spain to take legal action against airlines who failed customers during coronavirus crisis

Iberia protested Tuesday after the Spanish government pledged to sue 17 airlines for failing to inform travellers about their right to a refund for flights cancelled during the pandemic.

Published: 3 June 2020 12:35 CEST
Spain to take legal action against airlines who failed customers during coronavirus crisis
Photos: AFP

A day after the consumer affairs ministry said it would take legal action, the Spanish carrier hit back.

“Iberia and Iberia Express inform customers clearly about their rights,” it said.   

Under European law, when a flight is cancelled, passengers must be offered  an alternative flight or a refund. The refund may be voucher, but only if the customer consents, the European Commission clarified last month.

“Shortcomings in the information provided on customers' rights following the cancellation of flights,” led to  the legal action, the ministry said.    

“The misleading omission of information by airlines in offering vouchers (as the only option) constitutes unfair trading involving a clear lack of consent as well as a breach of the law,” a statement said.

Iberia said it was “bewildered” by the allegations and denounced the “very damaging effects” of such a move on both its reputation and “financial ability to overcome the current paralysis”.

Companies to be named in the lawsuit are Air Europa, Air France, Binter Canarias, EasyJet, Eurowings, Iberia (Iberia Express and Air Nostrum), Jet 2, KLM, Latam Airlines, Lufthansa, Ryanair, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Transavia, Thomson Airways (TUI), United Airlines, Volotea and Wizzair.   

“Refunds are always possible. This option has been clearly offered to our customers,” Germany's Lufthansa told AFP.

“But it must be understood that refunds are not being paid out within the normal timeframe,” it said.

The refund issue has become a political hot potato in the European Union.   

At the end of April, 12 European states including France — but not Spain — asked the bloc to suspend the law requiring airlines to offer full refunds for flights cancelled due to the crisis.

But the Commission said airlines must offer refunds and cannot force passengers to accept vouchers, while suggesting they incentivise vouchers as a way to support the hard-hit tourism sector.

French consumer rights group UFC-Que Choisir also said in May it would file a legal complaint against 20 airlines for failing to reimburse customers for cancelled flights.

With the near freezing of international traffic, airlines face an unprecedented financial crisis. Industry body Airlines for Europe (A4E) says €9.2 billion ($10.3 billion) had been lost in unused tickets by the end of May.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) gave a similar estimate, saying unused tickets amounted to some $10 billion in Europe and $35 billion globally.

READ MORE: Spain records zero daily coronavirus deaths for second day running

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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