- European Consumer Centre dealt with 3,500 contacts last year
- Four out of 10 contacts were relating to air travel
- 285 cases relating to air travel required direct intervention
The European Consumer Centre has said it received over 3,500 contacts last year – 63pc of which were complaints – and of which air travel accounted for four out of 10.
The remaining contacts to the ECC were requests for information.
Anne Heryan, dispute resolution advisor, said that 41pc (285 cases) of cases relating to air travel required direct intervention.
She said: “The majority involved complaints made by consumers in another European country against Irish airlines. Flight cancellations and delays were the number one cause of complaint for air passengers, followed by damaged, delayed or lost luggage or problems with an airline’s baggage policy.”
In addition, technical difficulties with booking flights online and also policies imposed by air carriers were also major reasons for complaint in 2015. Twenty-seven cases were relating to refund requests on medical grounds; in all health cases airlines required a medical certificate.
Car rental was responsible for 71.pc of the complaints.
The ECC also revealed that 1,737 complains were from Irish consumers relating to traders based in other EU countries.
In 232 of the cases there was no amicable resolution and further assistance was required and counterparts in other countries were needed to contact the trader.
Irish traders were the source of complaints by 31 people in other EU nations; intervention in 463 cases with Irish traders needed ECC intervention.
