- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:31 05:49 12:21 15:48 18:47 20:05
Under the offer, you can now take a return flight to Delhi, a very popular destination for Indians in the UAE, for just Dh613 in its economy class and for Dh1,470 if you prefer the luxury of business class. (Shutterstock)
How many times have you heard of stranded passengers due to an airline going belly-up?
It doesn’t happen too often, does it? You’d be surprised, but in the 100 years of commercial aviation, there have been a total of 2,424 reported bankruptcies of airlines. This number includes airlines that managed to come out of bankruptcy but those are few and far between.
Most of these bankruptcies occurred in the past few decades and, more importantly, a bulk of the bankruptcies – more than 42 per cent, or 1,031 – occurred in Europe, suggesting that passengers travelling to and from Europe are most at risk of getting stranded due to an airline running out of steam.
It took a long time coming, but the International Air Transport Association (Iata) yesterday finally announced a new formal arrangement to help passengers impacted by airline bankruptcy.
According to the deal, a voluntary agreement on behalf of its members flying to, from and within Europe will cover the repatriation of passengers unable to return home due to an airline ceasing operations as a result of financial failure.
“I am delighted to say that passengers left stranded in the rare and unfortunate event of an airline bankruptcy will be offered ‘rescue fares’ from airlines to ensure they can get home,” said Tony Tyler, Iata’s Director-General and CEO.
The agreement formalises a long-standing custom that many airlines have traditionally offered in these rare instances.
Under the agreement, in the event of an airline bankruptcy, Iata member airlines flying to and from the EU will make their best efforts to offer repatriation to passengers stranded away from home. These passengers will be provided access to discounted transport to return home, subject to available capacity.
The ‘rescue fares’ of a nominal amount will be available for purchase up to a maximum of two weeks after the event to anyone flying to and from or within Europe who does not already possess insurance covering this eventuality.
States responsible for the licensing of the insolvent airline should also play their role in communicating to stranded passengers the possibility of this rescue service, Iata said in a statement.
The European Commission has estimated that between 2011 and 2020, only 0.07 per cent of all passengers could be affected by airline bankruptcy, and of them, only 12 per cent would require assistance in getting home.
A permanent statutory fund to aid passengers in such situations has been a topic of considerable discussion. The airline industry has opposed such a fund as financially prudent airlines would be subsidising riskier airlines. More importantly, estimates of the bureaucracy needed to run the fund suggest that up to 85 per cent of the money would be eaten up in administration.
“A compulsory levy on airlines to deal with repatriation would not serve anybody’s interest. We commend the European Commission for resisting this and for encouraging airlines to adopt this coordinated and customer-focused approach,” said Tyler.
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.