Constant inconvenience to passengers on the Rome-Brussels air route
3.3.2008
WRITTEN QUESTION E-1476/08
by Renato Brunetta (PPE‑DE)
to the Commission
With reference to Regulation (EC) No 261/2004[1] concerning compensation and assistance to passengers, attention is drawn yet again (see Questions P‑4725/06 and P‑2950/05) to the complete lack of information and assistance on the Rome-Brussels air route.
In this latest incident (which occurred on Thursday, 28 February 2008) I had previously purchased a ticket from Alitalia for a code-share flight operated by Brussels Airlines, yet when I checked in with Alitalia I was refused a boarding card. I received no reply to my request for information, nothing was shown on the information screens and no passenger-handling staff were available.
That is what occurred at Rome's Fiumicino airport as I awaited the 10.20 flight to Brussels.
Such occurrences are highly inconvenient to passengers, who are too often required to wait in vain for information that never arrives or which — worse still — is inaccurate. Matters tend to be even worse when the flights on certain sectors are code-share ones.
In view of the fact that this kind of inconvenience to passengers occurs repeatedly, and given that the incidents reported in my questions are merely ones that I have experienced at first hand, will the Commission say whether:
- —the abovementioned Regulation has actually been implemented by the Member States?
- —it has carried out follow-up checks on the airlines' application of the rules?
- [1] OJ L 46, 17.2.2004, p. 1.
OJ C 291, 13/11/2008