Participants to this conference will obtain 3 legal points.

 

 

Topics: 1. Air passenger rights or wrongs (Mia Wouters)

Content: Overview of Air Passenger Rights available in Europe, with the accent on Regulation n° 261/2004 on compensation and assistance in the event of denied boarding, cancellation or long delays, and how the Regulation was interpreted by the European Courts of Justice.

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2. Selected pitfalls and hard cases concerning air passenger rights and travelers rights (Hans De Coninck)

Content: The European consultations in 2010 by the European Commission on the Air Passenger Rights and on the current review of the Package Travel Directive learned that there is a need to update and widen the scope of these legislations, and to make them more coherent, complementary and better enforceable . These gaps and shortcomings will be illustrated by a number of examples and cases, in order to draw some proposals “de lege ferenda” .

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3. What's new in Europe regarding passenger rights and package travelling? (Flor Diaz-Pulido)

Ongoing initiatives and lege ferendae.

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4. Package travelling: the tour operators duties in case of force majeure events (Jos Speybrouck)

Content: The law on package holidays can be found in the European Directive on package travel and has been transposed in the law of each of the Member States. Basically, the directive makes a distinction between pre- and post departure problems. But in cases of force majeure events, these rules aren’t always that easy to apply. This presentation will deal with questions about cancellation and delay in departure, the offer of a suitable alternative and repatriation, and the extra costs that come with it. An overview of the jurisprudence reveals that the answers given on these questions can vary among the member states.

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5. Package travelling: alternative dispute resolution methods – the Belgian Travel Complaints Commission (Anne Moriau)

Content: Introduction to the Belgian Travel Complaints Commission (Geschillencommissie Reizen /Commission de Litiges Voyages) and its 2 methods of alternative dispute resolution: Arbitration (since 1983) and Mediation (since 2004).

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6. Mediation in the aviation sector (Patricia Antersijn and Linda Reijerkerk)

Aviation Mediation: "At the service of security". Conflict is a threat to aviation safety. How mediation can contribute to good conflict management? What is security? Safety culture vs. legal culture: the paradox. Who gets the blame? Including a Case study about communication in the cockpit and the mediation between the 2 pilots.

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7. Private versus public dispute resolution

Four years of private claim collection. What did we achieve? The rise, success and demise of the Dutch Aviation ADR. The rapidly growing role of the insurance industry in implementing 261/2004 related claim settlements. The need for reliable data.