Passengers Rights Regulations and the Package Travel Directive (PTD) give important protections for consumers. But the pandemic, market developments, and the emergence of multimodal journeys have highlighted the need to update existing rules and create new protections.

In 2021, the European Commission announced a new initiative called ‘Better protection for passengers and their rights’. BEUC welcomed it as it focused on long-standing issues for consumers: lax enforcement, the need for rules for online intermediaries, the lack of airline insolvency protection for standalone air tickets, no right for consumers to cancel their standalone tickets in extraordinary circumstances, or the lack of passenger rights in multimodal transport. The Commission also announced a review of the PTD.

Here are seven key points for policymakers to ensure better consumer protection, correct structural problems, and to create a more resilient travel industry.