Package tour

Dear passengers,

Regarding frequent passenger objections demonstrating dissatisfaction with the delays of flights that are part of package tour, we inform you of the following:

  •   Applicable law: The Law on Obligations and the Basic of Property Relations in Air Transport (“Official Gazette RS” No 87/11 and 66/15). The provisions of Regulation EC 261/04 and the Montreal Convention have been implemented in this Law. The Law defines property relations in air transport more closely, and the provisions of Articles of the Law are not in collision with the Montreal Convention which is in the higher level of hierarchy of legal acts.
  •  Tourist agency files an application at the air carrier for charter air transport for a specified destination and period of time;
  •  Air carrier provides positive/negative response regarding requested carriage. When the response is positive, an Agreement on lease of aircraft is made between the tourist agency and the operater;
  •  Passenger pays the tourist agency the total amount of money for package tour.
  •  In case of damage sustained during transport, passenger addresses the tourist agency in accordance with their obligation relation, and the tourist agency addresses the air carrier- as referred to in Article 21 of The Law on Obligations and the Basic of Property Relations in Air Transport.• 
  •   Passenger has not bought plane ticket from air carrier, and the whole capacity of aircraft has been given at disposal to orderer of carriage (the tourist agency) for contracted charge.
 
Tourist agencies refer to the Montreal Convention which defines that air carrier is obliged to provide compensation due to delay. As the Convention defined the term “delay” generally speaking, the European Parliament adopted Regulation (EC) 261/04 dealing with this topic in a more detailed manner (the Regulation defines meaning of long delay, timeframes and rules for compensation). The national law set forth obligations in air transport in details, by implementing provisions of both the Montreal Convention and EC 261/64. In case of damage caused by delay, according to the Montreal Convention, the liability of the carrier for each passenger is limited to 4150 Special Drawing Rights, and the real value is designated by the court based on the evidence provided.

Therefore, in accordance with the applicable regulations, recomended practice and harmonisation of national legislation with the EU acquis, in your case, tour operator is liable for all irregularities regarding services included in package tour, and the tour operator will protect the rights by the Contract signed with the third party inside the Service. Insight in the contract between Tourist Agency and third party (e.g. air carrier) when providing tour package may be provided to national authority that monitors work of tourist agencies.

Delay of flight:

The provisions of Article 11 of the The Law on Obligations and the Basic of Property Relations in Air Transport (“Official Gazette RS” No 87/11 and 66/15) sets forth the meaning of the term “delay”. The right to compensation is set forth by the provisions of the Article 12 of the Law, under the condition there was reference to this Article in the Law (in case of delay there is no such reference).

The Law has not stipulated the right of compensation for a passenger in case of delay of flight in accordance with the transposed Regulation EC No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, that is transposed in national law, in its entirety.

The compensation that passengers expect to receive depends on the flight length (EUR 250, EUR 400, EUR 600) with reference to jurisprudence of EU that equals delay of flight longer than 3 hours to cancellation. As most segments of charter air transport are flights betwen the countries other than EU members, jurisprudence of EU has no legal effect and it is not leagally binding for carriers. Jurisprudence of the EU has no legally binding effect in the Republic of Serbia. Immediately upon amendments are made to EC Regulation, national laws shall comply with the respective amendments. At the moment, compliance of the national and EU regulations as regards passenger rights in air transport is full.

For instance, let us consider that the flight covered by the package tour has evidently been delayed. Compensation in case of delay has not been laid down by the Law (neither by the EC 261/04). In case the damage was incurred on you due to delay of flight (shorter stay at the destination), you should address orderer of carriage since the agreement was made between you and the said orderer.

Irrespective of that, and in accordance with Article 97 of the Law, passenger may protect his/her rights by filing a complaint at the competent court.

Package tour is a pre-defined set of services obliging tour operator to supply to passenger at least two services covering transport, accommodation or other tourist services as a whole and provided in a period of time longer than 24 h or include at least one overnight stay, and the passenger is obliged to pay for the services one total (lump-sum) price;

The other Law and regulations that might be used in cases related to “package tour”:

Paragraph of the Consumer Protection Law:

Article 102

The organiser is responsible for the conformity of service, including services provided to passenger by a third party (providers of transport, lodging, nutrition, other services in tourism, as well as entertaining, or cultural, sports or other programmes for leisure).

Article with reference to EU document: Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on on package travel and linked travel arrangements, PERFORMANCE OF THE PACKAGE TOUR.

Article 13

The organiser is responsible for the performance of the travel services included in the package travel contract, irrespective of whether those services are to be performed by the organiser or by other travel service providers.

Legal Framework

Current regulations
 
Applicable laws in the Republic of Serbia as regards protection of passenger rights in air transport are part of the following documents:

  •  Law on Obligations and Basic Property Relations in Air Transport (“Official Gazette RS” No 87/11 and 66/15) and
  •  Air Transport Law (“Official Gazette RS” No 73/10, 57/11, 93/12, 45/15, 66/15 – other law, 83/18 and 9/20).

Compliance with EU regulations: all passenger rights granted within Eurozone which are defined by the regulations of the European Commission have been implemented in legislation of the Republic of Serbia.
 
Due to harmonisation of EU acquis with the national legislative acts, the Law on Obligation and Basic Property Relations in Air Transport transposes the following regulations:

  •  Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights;
  •  Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006 concerning the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air;
  •  Regulation (EC) 889/2002 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2027/97 on air carrier liability in the event of accidents;
  •  Parts of the Montreal Convention- convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (carriage of passengers and baggage).

Note: privileges and liabilities of air carrier operating in other countries have been defined by multilateral agreements where: “The laws and regulations of one signing party regulating entry, stay or departure from its territory of an aircraft performing international air transport while in its territory, shall apply to aircraft of any air carrier in air transport designated by the other signing party”.

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Cancellation

Although it may look different, cancellation of flight is not always air carrier’s fault. Before asking for compensation for the cancelled flight, it is necessary to find the cause for cancellation.

Cancellation due to airline’s fault :

  •  operational reasons;
  •  flight time limitations;
  •  passenger has not checked in due to overbooking (the air carrier has sold more seats than available, usually due to change of the type of airplane);
  •  the flight is unprofitable due to low interest;
  •  air carrier cannot provide the reasons for flight cancellation.

The air carrier is not liable when the reason for flight cancellation is one or more of the following :

  •  Weather conditions;
  •  Natural disasters;
  •  Military operations;
  •  State of emergency;
  •  Limitation and restriction of free movement- based on various considerations;
  •  Strike of employees in aviation industry (air traffic controllers, ground handlers, agents…);
  •  Aircraft defects that pose threat to passenger safety, except for those that might have been fixed by regular aircraft maintenance.

In the event of cancellation, the air carrier is obliged to:

  •  Deliver notice on passenger rights in accordance with the Law (usually written in e-card- international practice to avoid printing new papers for each cancelled flight);
  •  Offer the passenger concerned to choose between the cash refund of the full cost of the ticket (if you have decided not to travel), or re-routing to the final destination;
  •  Offer free meals and refreshments depending on the waiting time, as set forth by company procedure;
  •  Provide hotel accommodation, transport between the airport and place of accomodation, if one or more overnight stays are necessary;
  •  Provide free of charge two telephone calls, telex or fax messages or e-mails;
  •  Compensate (the amount of money between EUR 125 and EUR 600, depending on the duration of the flight and the time of flight delay during re-routing).

Compensation shall not be paid in case of extraordinary situations where air carrier could not influence, as well as in the situation when cancellation has been planned, that is airline strategically cancels flight in the event you recieved notices on:

  •  Cancellation of flight at least two weeks prior to scheduled departure;
  •  Cancellation of flight in the period between two weeks and seven days before scheduled departure and in case you have been offerred re-routing enabling your travel, no longer than two hours, before scheduled departure, and you arrive at your final destination within period of time no longer than four hours from the time of scheduled arrival;
  •  Cancellation of flight within seven days before the day of scheduled departure, and in case you have been offerred re-routing enabling your travel no longer than one hour before scheduled departure and arrive at your final destination within period of two hours from the time of scheduled arrival;

The burden of proof concerning the questions as to whether and when the passenger has been informed of the cancellation of the flight, and whether the cause of cancellation is force majeure, shall rest with the operating air carrier.

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Submission of Complaints

  •  Submit your complaint to air carrier first. Most airlines accept complaints in electronic form via special portals for complaint submission.
  •  Complaint is successfuly submitted when you receive an answer with complaint reference number.
  •  Timeframe for submission of complaint is 90 days from cancellation of performed or intended flight. When submitting complaint, passenger needs to enclose relevant evidence.
  •  Air carrier has the timeframe of 60 days to respond to complaint (to accept a complaint or to reject a complaint with reasons for rejection-referring to facts leading to rejection and releasing air carrier of liability to pay compensationrefund).
  •  In case air carrier has not responed to your complaint or you consider the response has not protected your rights- you may send full documentation to the competent body for the purpose of determining whether there has been any violation of the Law.
  In case air carrier has rejected your complaint with no legal grounds- the competent body will readdress you to exercising your rights (legal remedy- you address air carrier again indicating irregularities made in the process of resolving your complaint, the last step- addressing competent court). In both cases, you enclose response of the competent body as a valid document in exercising your rights.

Legal framework: The European Union Commission defines that passenger complaints are addressed to the competent body ensuring effective application of this Regulation, only when the complaint has already been submitted to air carrier and passenger disagrees the response, that is when the passenger is not satisfied with the air carrier’s response. The Commission recommends that the air carrier responds within a period of time of two months. However, in accordance with Regulation 261/04, the Commission considers that national authorities competent for implamentation of this Regulation are not obliged to handle complaints in such manner as to guarantee exercising of each passenger’s rights individually. Accordingly, national body responsible for effective application of regulation is not obliged to take coercive measure against air carrier with an aim to force the air carrier to pay compensation laid down by the Regulation in each specific case, since the sanctioning role of the authority arising from Article 16 (3) of the Regulation consists of measures that should be adopted as a response to infringement the body detects during performance of its regular activities of monitoring as laid down by Article 16 (1). 

Responsibilty

In accordance with Article 173 of the Law and EU regulations, the Directorate is the body of the Republic of Serbia which ensures the application of provisions of this Law regarding protection of guaranteed passenger rights :


  •  For flights with place od departure in the territory of the Republic of Serbia;
  •  Or the flights from departure aerodrome in the state that has not been specified in Article 8 pargraph 2 point 1 of this Law (aerodromes out of ECAA area), under the condition that place of final destination is the aerodrome in the territory of the Republic of Serbia and the flight is performed by air carrier of foreign signatory ECAA (air carriers from EU area).


The ECAA agreement is a Multilateral Agreement between the European Community and its Member States, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Romania, Serbia and the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution of 10 June 1999) on the establishment of a European Common aviation Area.


Examples of areas of responsibility :

 

Place of departure	Destination	Air carrier	Area of responsibility of CAD RS	Out of area of responsibility CAD RS
BELGRADE	Any destination in the territory of the Republic of Serbia	Any air carrier	YES
NIS			YES
KRALJEVO			YES
BERLIN	BELGRADE	Air Serbia	YES
VIENNA	BELGRADE	Austrian		NO-Austria
HURGADA	BELGRADE	Air Cairo		NO-Egypt
HURGADA	BELGRADE	Air Serbia	YES
ATHENS	BELGRADE	Aegean		NO-Grece
ATHENS	BELGRADE	Air Serbia	YES
MOSCOW	BELGRADE	Air Serbia	YES
SOLUN	KRALJEVO	Air Serbia	YES
DOTHMUND	NIS	WizzAir		NO- Germany

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