The UK Department for Transport (DfT) will soon prioritise the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)’s power to enforce legal action against airlines that breach flyers’ consumer rights.
Travel Weekly reports that the UK Government has already granted the Competition and Markets Authority more power to rule on breaches of consumer law and impose fines on airlines, and the DoT recently consulted on reforming aviation consumer policy,
“We want to ensure there is consumer confidence in the aviation sector particularly as we come out of COVID, to ensure consumers have confidence that the products they pay for will be delivered. There are problems in a small number of areas,” Ben Smith, Aviation Director at the Department for Transport, said at the Airlines 2022 conference in London last week.
“The CAA needs more powers in the area of consumer redress. It can take us years to get redress against airlines and that does not make sense. Our powers are outdated compared with other regulators,” explained CAA CEO, Richard Moriarty. “Just bring us into line with the updated powers of others. I don’t see these powers being used often.”
“I have no worries about a CAA power grab. The CAA dealt excellently with the issues that came up over refunds,” adds Airlines UK CEO Tim Alderslade.
