Overbooking by airlines

[Yassi]

Karl's answer of today (30/11/2006) was very useful. The airline I used on Monday 28th August 2006 who caused and a few others to be bumped off the flight from Marrakech to London Gatwich does not accept that the regulations in force refer to them at this stage. They say that they only come into force as from the beginning of 2007 as the flight started from a non EU country. The airline's name is Atlas Blue. Could you please clarify this for me. Thank you.

[Buenchico]

The relevant EU legislation applies to
(i) all flights originating from EU countries and
(ii) to flights from non-EU countries with airlines that hold an operating licence granted by an EU member state.

Atlas Blue's operating licence is granted by the Moroccan authorities. So, while flights from London to Marrakech are covered by the first part of the regulations, return flights are not covered by the second.

The regulations are here:
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/200 4/l_046/l_04620040217en00010007.pdf

For easier reading, see the BBC's summary, here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/business/4267095.s tm

When the EU regulations were brought in, the legislation placed a duty on the EU to consider, prior to 1st January 2007, whether the regulations could, or should, be extended to cover other flights. Although I can find no reference to a decision on this, it could be that this is what was referred to by Atlas Blue with their reference to 'the start of 2007'.

Chris