EUjet failure cost stranded families an average of £400, report says
05.10.05
Passengers left stranded across Europe by the failure of low cost airline EUjet had to fork out an average £100 to get home, according to a report published today. The report comes from the consumer protection arm of the Civil Aviation Authority, which surveyed over 3000 EUjet passengers and had responses from around half of those who were either stranded abroad or held bookings with EUjet.
The report found lack of communication to stranded passengers, unsatisfactory refunds, an ignorance on the customers' part as to the protection they would receive in the event of airline failure, and costly repatriation, rising to an average £400 for a family of four.
When the Kent airport based airline went bust on July 26, there were 12,000 passengers still abroad in destinations including Malaga, Nice and Palma, all of whom had to find alternative transport home.
Well-publicised campaigns from rival carriers including easyJet and Flybe offering special fares to repatriate the mostly Kent based EUjet passengers were taken up by fewer 17% of passengers. The reason was that while 69% of passengers were aware of the special offers, which included a £25 (including tax) offer from easyJet, less than 2,000 passengers booked tickets because of a lack of seats, or time restrictions on the special fares. Most of the offers ran out on August 2, at which time 5,000 of the stranded EUJet passengers were still abroad.
The average fare paid by passengers trying to get home was £81. Add onto this the cost of getting from Gatwick - where 60% of the EUjet passengers landed - or Stansted - where 29% ended up - back to Kent, and the total cost of getting home rose to an average £100 per passenger.
Since the failure of the airline, the 27,000 people who held bookings with EUjet have been seeking refunds, but a third of them were refused on the basis that they paid for their ticket with cash or a debit card - something they may have done to avoid the credit card booking fee.
A loophole in consumer protections laws means they have no other option for seeking compensation, even though 67% of those responding to the survey said they thought they would be covered by ATOL, ABTA, travel insurance or elsewhere.
The remaining passengers, who paid an average fare of £120 by credit card, are pursuing either their credit card company or an Irish Administrator for a refund. Those who has made additional arrangement such as accommodation and car hire, will be unlikely to be able to recoup these costs from their credit card company or travel insurers, the CAA said.
The CAA is using its findings following the collapse of the airline to support its campaign for the government to introduce a £1 levy paid by passengers on all flights to build up a fund that would be used to refund passengers left out of pocket by UK airline failures in the future.
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