The European Consumer Centre (ECC) in Ireland says EU regulations are “unambiguous” in relation to the rights of passengers to receive refunds from airlines for flights cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Some airlines have been offering vouchers to passengers whose flights have been cancelled.

Guidance

In a note issued on Thursday, the centre referred to recent guidance from the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR), which is responsible for enforcing Regulation EU 261/2004 in Ireland.

The commission said that although airlines were entitled to offer vouchers to passengers instead of refunds, passengers were under no obligation to accept them.

The ECC acknowledged, however, that although consumers were entitled to a refund within seven days of choosing this option, this was “very difficult” under the current circumstances, with all airlines facing an exceptional level of refund requests and customer service contacts.

Redress

Nevertheless, it added, if a customer had opted for but not received a refund or a response to a request for refund, contact and redress options were still available.

The first one is to complain directly to airlines through regular post or the online forms available on their websites and social media.

If consumers do not receive a satisfactory response from the airline, or no response is received within six weeks of making the complaint, the ECC says the issue can be escalated to the CAR, via the complaints section on its flightrights.ie site. This applies only if the refund request involves a flight meant to have departed from Ireland.

'Unambiguous'

For other countries, consumers need to make a formal complaint to that country’s equivalent of the CAR. A list of these bodies is on the CAR website.

“Consumers rights are unambiguous in the current, applicable European Union Regulation EC 261/2004.”, says Dr Cyril Sullivan, ECC Ireland’s director.

“One of the options offered by some airlines is vouchers, which is their entitlement according to the same regulation; however they must also provide an option for a full cash refund if that is the customer’s choice,” he adds.