Eureka! Institutional Repository

The subject of our thesis cites , explores and analyzes passenger rights in air transportation inside the European Union, but also cites all international treaties and protocols which have, in the passage of time, shaped the rules of air transportation as well as passenger rights. In the first chapter we describe the liberalization of air services and the efforts by the European Union for the improvement of passenger informing in cases such as denied boarding. Moving on, we analyze the two pillars of consumer-passenger protection, which regard (a) the protection of passengers via air services but we will also (b) recommend ways for the resolution of issues between the passenger and the air carrier. In the main part of our thesis we shall succinctly present the subject of the thesis, through the key Regulation (EC) 261/2004 which shaped the key conditions for passenger protection, bringing about important changes in the status of the safeguard of passenger rights. Thus the regulation was called to handle cases such as denied boarding, a possible flight cancellation, or even flight delays. We shall discuss the rights of every passenger to seek compensation and in which cases but also what may be sought be passengers in a plethora of issues which may emerge in the course of a flight. Closing our main chapter we shall briefly talk about a recent and last minute – small – differentiation in the regulation by the European Council in 2014. This shall be followed by an equally important chapter on the cases where compensation is involved but also on the legal protection offered to consumers. We shall cite international jurisdiction through which 5 procedures are established, thus increasing the possibilities open to the beneficiary to lodge a suit for compensation against those facilitated by the Warsaw Treaty (article 28). As we conclude our thesis we shall refer to the liberalization of air fares in the European Union where the full release of the fares from any form of intervention originates, as did the free shaping of air fares, without, of course, this being against the customers’ interests. Their interests must in some way be preserved in parallel to those of the air transportation market. This is the ultimate goal of Regulation (EEC) 2409/92 which regards the fares and rates of air carriers.