Published in EUobserver, 23 August 2005
Travellers all over Europe found themselves stranded by the collapse of EUJet at the end of last month. Five thousand British holidaymakers enjoying the best that Europe has to offer suddenly found themselves facing the worst.
How were they to get home? How long would it take? What would it cost? Well-laid plans were thrown into chaos by a corporate bankruptcy.
This is a familiar enough scenario – most years, it seems, some people get stranded somewhere – but the passengers last month were in for a second shock.
They discovered that EUJet was registered and regulated in Ireland and that British compensation measures did not apply. It was flying British passengers to and from a British airport but, such is the magic of the EU, it did not have to be a British-registered airline.
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