Biden Wants Airlines to Pay Passengers for Delays. In Europe, they already do

Lately, 31-year-old Mattia Zenere’s travels seem to have had some bad luck.

In the past five years, four of his flights have been delayed or canceled for long periods of time, including an accident on a trip from London to Venice, Italy that delayed his arrival by a full day. .

But there are also bright spots. In both cases, the customer service representatives were reimbursed for their out-of-pocket expenses, thanks to strong consumer protection rules for European airlines. Mr. Zenere also received additional hardship benefits from the airlines for the three disruptions.

“The law really works,” he said.

For those fed up with U.S. air travelers, similar protections may be on the horizon, but airlines aren’t happy about it. President Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg this week announced plans to introduce new rules this year that would require airlines to pay for travel disruptions they cause.

Following a wave of pandemic-era flight disruptions and a fiasco that forced Southwest Airlines to cancel 16,700 flights around the winter holidays, Mr Biden said that Europeans (and non-Europeans flying in Europe) ) will now seek the same protection that Americans have enjoyed. 20 years.

EU law is popular and generous. flight was delayed Anything over 3 hours will be considered a cancellation, and passengers are entitled to compensation of between €250 ($273) and €600. Payment is determined by the distance flown, not the price of the ticket. have long protested.

Airlines can dispute payments, claiming that the disruption was caused by unusual circumstances such as bad weather, a strike by a controller, or an “unusual” technical problem with the aircraft. However, European courts continue to narrow the definition of “abnormal”.one this week control Even the death of a co-pilot does not exempt the airline from compensating customers for the delay.

Biden’s plan calls for cash refunds for any significant delays or cancellations. The president also wants travelers to be reimbursed for meals, hotels, ground transportation and rebooking fees.US airline not currently needed Offer cash compensation for delays or cancellations. They have to compensate passengers who are “hit” from the plane.

That’s not enough, Mr. Biden said. “You should be fully compensated. Your time matters. The impact on your life matters.”

European legislation has changed the way airlines schedule flights. A spokesman for Eurocontrol, an intergovernmental body that helps manage Europe’s commercial airspace, told Dealbook that “currently there is a particular focus on punctual arrival.” Still, as air travel booms, EU flight data shows delays to be expected. growing problem.

Airlines oppose the compensation law. “Airlines already have financial incentives to get passengers to their destinations as planned.” Willie Walsh, executive director of the lobby group International Air Transport Association, said: in the statement Criticize the Biden plan. “While the additional costs imposed by this regulation do not create new incentives, they must be recovered and may affect ticket prices,” his Steer Group, an independent consulting firm. teeth, calculated In 2018, European airlines reportedly incurred costs totaling €5 billion to process a large number of claims and pay out meritorious compensation. Airlines incurred an average cost of €138 per disrupted passenger.

European air passenger rights regulation is not a panacea. Securing a claim can still be time consuming and frustrating. Zenere, for example, is still arguing with airline Wizz Air, which postponed a trip to Venice last year. They were underpaid and still owed €250 for canceled trips, he said. “I know my rights,” he said. — Bernhard Warner

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zelda business

Few video games are as revolutionary as The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo’s action-adventure series that was released in 1986. Almost 40 years later, the Japanese company has announced the latest installment in the series, Tears of the Kingdom. The game lives up to high expectations.

It was released yesterday (some fans) I took the day off are playing) and are expected to hit. But will that be enough to make up for Nintendo’s sluggish sales? The company last released a new console, the Switch, in 2017, the same year it released its last Zelda game, Breath of the Wild. Both were very successful. However, the Switch faces increasing competition, and gamers generally hold off on expensive hardware purchases. New businesses such as the “Super Mario Bros. movie” provided a tailwind.but Nintendo has no plans to launch a significant new console within the next year.

Still, the Zelda series is a valuable asset with a long history and a passionate fan base. Let’s look at this game and its business significance in numbers.

29 million: A copy of Nintendo’s most popular Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, has been sold.

10.3 million: YouTube views of the 4 minute trailer for the new Tears of the Kingdom game. This trailer was scrutinized by superfans for hints on upcoming releases.

$69.99: Tears of the Kingdom price tag, $10 more than what Nintendo normally charges for new games.

125 million: The total number of Nintendo Switch consoles sold as of March 31, according to the company’s website.

15 million: The number of Switch consoles Nintendo plans to sell this year, after selling 18 million Switch units in the year ending March. “It will be difficult to maintain the Switch’s sales momentum in its seventh year,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said on a conference call with investors this week, according to Bloomberg.

Our Focus: “BlackBerry”

Movies about Silicon Valley tech giants like Apple and Facebook capture the drama behind the companies and their great founders. Blackberry, which hit theaters yesterday, is the latest film to tell the story of an incident. A pioneering company and the relationships behind the characters who led it. This phone with its tiny keyboard was so revolutionary and a mainstay of executive life that it became known as the “Crackberry”. But the real subject of the film is the relationship between the engineer who developed the device and the burgeoning corporate executive. His BlackBerry may have been on fire in the iPhone era, but critics found the film to have a lot of relevance for today. “Perhaps more than anything else, BlackBerry highlights the vulnerability and exploitability of creatives in a hot market,” wrote Janet Catouris of The New York Times.

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