Originally Posted by
kanderson1965
Perhaps it is not in their interest to do so, after all what would they do if there was no laws to make?
I do agree that the two views are not compatible, I just feel it would all sort itself out eventually if left to its own devices.
There are lots of areas of business where the customer is seen to be at a disadvantage e.g. banks and energy companies, however the EU does not seem to want to intervene with these companies, so why pick on airlines?
But banks and energy companies are regulated but by national governments. The issue in these cases is that when the regulators find against them the fines are paid to the Government and NOT to the customers affected.
EU261 is different in that it regulated an area not already generally regulated and there was agreement across Europe that EU regulation was better than national regulation.
But as I have said previously it was because individual airlines were not sorting it out that it was felt that regulation was needed.
It is still up to an airline to decide what to do - if they want to pay out €€€€ in compensation and duty of care rather than operate a flight then that's down to them. But it is a choice they make knowing full well it will cost them a lot of money (and passenger goodwill.)