Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, gives her apologies that she cannot be here.

The Covid crisis has seen an unprecedented impact on international travel and, as a result, civil aviation globally is currently experiencing its most challenging crisis ever. Many analysts are predicting that it will take several years for the sector to return to 2019 levels.

The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, has met all key aviation stakeholders and her officials continue to engage with airports and airlines. She remains concerned that the current uncertainty around international travel, as well as the less positive prospects for summer 2021 than all of us would have hoped for, are leaving Irish consumers exposed to financial loss as a result of complying with public health guidelines. The impact and strain of the current trading environment on airlines and their staff are fully acknowledged. The financial and commercial pressures that persist for so long as international travel is restricted are fully understood.

The Government has responded to the crisis impacting businesses, including airlines, through varied supports such as the wage subsidy scheme, grants, low-cost loans, the commercial rates waiver, which has been extended into 2021, and deferred tax liabilities. In addition to the economy-wide measures, on 10 November 2020, the Government announced an €80 million funding package for Irish aviation. This provided an extra €48 million in supports for 2021, in addition to those announced in budget 2021 of €31.3 million.

In the EU, travel and transport service consumers, not just those using airlines, are protected by law, particularly in the instance of cancellations of services by the travel provider. In the case of cancelled flights, the rules under the air passenger rights regulation, known as EU 261/2004, are clear. The passenger must be given the choice of a refund or alternative flights later at no extra cost. The EU rules allow for passengers to accept a refund ordinarily by cash or bank transfer but also by way of a voucher. The passenger must give their consent to accept a voucher rather than cash. Once that voucher is issued by the airline, it has fulfilled its lawful obligation.

The EU's passenger rights regulations do not cover situations where passengers cannot travel or want to cancel or postpone a trip on their own initiative, for example, by following Government advice not to travel. However, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, has taken many opportunities to impress on the main Irish airlines that their treatment of passengers who choose not to travel, for example in following Government advice, needs to be fair and reasonable.

The Minister of State recently sought clarification from both Aer Lingus and Ryanair on their current rebooking policies. She has specifically requested the airlines to set out their respective policies in respect of their voucher and rebooking options for passengers who choose not to travel under the current rules governing international air travel; how they propose to provide for future bookings by passengers should travel restrictions persist; how they propose to handle customers who previously rebooked 2020 travel likely at an extra cost for travel in 2021 or beyond; or those who previously accepted a time-limited voucher but have not yet rebooked their flight.

Aer Lingus has indicated that its book-with-confidence policy, covering all flights scheduled to run until the end of 2021, as well as available to passengers up to the end of September at least, including those who may have already rebooked for a future travel date, allows customers to change their travel date free of charge, as many times as they wish up to two hours before their flight. It also indicated that passengers may swap their booking for a voucher and that their vouchers are valid for five years.

Ryanair has clarified that the expiry dates for vouchers that were issued for flight cancellations last year are being extended to enable passengers to make bookings when travel is open again. The Minister understands from their response that rebooking can be made with no flight change fee for travel before 31 October 2021. Ryanair has also informed the Minister that vouchers that were offered to customers whose flights were cancelled can be converted to cash at any time or can be redeemed for future bookings.

While it is recognised that airlines will keep such policies under review, it is incumbent on them to ensure that they deliver on these policies in a way that is easy to access by their consumers. In continuing dialogue with the airlines, the Minister of State will ensure that the passenger experience is kept in focus in order that the passengers can have confidence to travel with their preferred airline when the conditions allow.