This document updates estimates, previously adopted by EUROCONTROL, of the cost of passenger delay to European airlines. It draws on various sources of evidence, with a particular focus on the impact of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, which establishes the rules for compensation and assistance to airline passengers in the event of denied boarding, cancellation or delay. It reviews major legal rulings on the Regulation to assess the broader cost impacts on airlines. It also assesses changes to the Regulation being considered by the European Commission, in order to ensure that the cost framework used for these delay cost calculations is sufficiently adaptable to such changes and to gain an insight into the likely future regulatory emphasis, particularly where this has a financial implication for airlines. The objective is to produce cost reference values for industry use, which accurately reflect airline delay costs.
These results will be used to develop European reference values for use by industry and in wider research, updating previously published values adopted by EUROCONTROL. The Performance Review commission of EUROCONTROL has used such findings in the past, and is likely to do so again in the future.
Feedback on the delay cost values presented in this document is invited, particularly from airlines. All feedback will be treated in confidence and suggestions for evidence-based adjustments will be taken into account
