Coronavirus : the EU requests France to be reimbursed for the canceled flights

In case of cancellation, the passenger must be offered a new route, or a refund. This eu rule is difficult to apply.

The call to order comes from the EU. The european commission is asking France to impose the reimbursement of the plane tickets cancelled because of the sars coronavirus. She has as well sent a letter of formal notice to several countries, including France, to ask them to enforce the european regulation on the subject, reports Les Echos.

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The european legislation provides that in the event of cancellation, the passenger must be offered a new route, or a refund. This latter is the rule, and may take the form of a credit, but only with the agreement of the consumer, has reminded the european Commission in may.

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This rule is worthwhile, however, to apply, both companies have been hit hard hit by the crisis of the Covid-19, and the drop in demand. The procedure of the Commission is a response to this inertia. She waits for a response from the Member within a period of two months and their request to "take steps to remedy the deficiencies that it has identified".

In France, the consumer association UFC-que choisir announced in may that it would assign in justice twenty airlines to allow passengers whose flight has been cancelled have the right to choose between a refund and a credit. Put on his knees by the judgment of the world traffic, the airlines are defending saying of "liquidity constraints and unprecedented", according to A4E, their main european association.

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"Covid-19", the new coronavirus

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For A4E, unused tickets represent 9.2 billion euros until the end of may. According to the international air transport Association (Iata), these unused tickets represent 10 billion dollars in Europe, and $ 35 billion at the global level.