Flight Delays, Security and Economic Reimbursements

Abstract

Over the past decade, the air transport system has undergone profound changes, mainly driven by the evolution of reference legislation and markets globalization process. The primary cause also goes by the name of "deregulation", which has profoundly revolutionized the tariff methodology and air transport management.

With deregulation, airlines have seen disappear of barriers and constraints that incentivized growth and development for many years (Arrigo, Giuricin, 2006; Postorino, 2009).

The globalization of markets has also proved decisive in the growth of demand for air transport, which has become an irreplaceable means of transfer that allows the connection from one part of the terrestrial globe to another in a few hours. Impressive growth in air traffic and deregulation has at the same time led to millions of frequent passengers and unpleasant complications, such as delays. In the absence of a specific discipline in this area and with the desire to give balance to a situation partially unbalanced to the detriment of consumers/travelers, the European Union decided to take action to remedy it, equipping passengers with effective protection tools against these afore mentioned situations.

The European Union has made the rules issued in 1991 on compensation and assistance to air passengers more rigid and afflictive for airlines by providing, at the same time, new provisions aimed at mitigating the inconvenience of passengers abandoned at airports due to canceled flights or of prolonged delays. The EU legislation covering these changes, which was preceded by the Passenger Rights White Paper, is contained in EU Regulation 261/1994, which came into force in February 2005, which sets out how and operational rules on assistance and reimbursement to air traffic users (Fraschina, 2009).

The three different hypotheses of "denied boarding", cancelled flights and prolonged delays are the subject of regulation.

In this study, however, we will mainly address the rights and reimbursement of passengers in the event of delays of air flights, in fact according to the new legislation, more protection will be provided to passengers who will face the painful and common circumstances of the delays. Community bodies believed that adequate assistance and reimbursement should be provided to passengers who were forced to long waits at airports due to a flight delay.