EL TURISTA COMO USUARIO DEL SERVICIO DE TRANSPORTE AÉREO: NORMAS COMUNITARIAS Y CONVENIOS INTERNACIONALES APLICABLES.

Abstract

This paper focuses on tourists as the users of air transport services for two fundamental reasons: because air is the means of transport most tourists use today and because air transport has the highest number of carrier breaches of contract affecting passengers. An analysis is given of air carrier liability vis-à-vis passengers in different cases of breach of contract. The terms of two rules on air carrier liability are studied: Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding and of cancellation or long delay of flights, and the Montreal Convention of 28 May 1999 for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (MC). The reason why the paper revolves about these two rules is that, if a carrier commits breach of contract nowadays, these two rules form the applicable basic legal procedure for resolving the conflict. This is notwithstanding the subsidiary application of other, more generic rules, such as Royal Legislative Decree 1/2006 of 16 November approving the revised National Consumer Defence Act, other supplementary laws and the Civil Code. The point of addressing air carrier liability vis-à-vis passengers and the terms thereof under the EC Regulation and the MC is to respond to a series of issues concerning these rules' applicability and operation. The rights of air passengers according to each are found.