Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

Linked travel arrangements and their protection under the new Package Travel Directive Marc Mc Donald 1 1. Introduction; 2. Brief history/policy drivers; 3. Airlines outside the security obligation; 4. Closer look at linked travel arrangements [LTA’s]; 5. Compliance with general principles of EU law; 6. Websites – organiser, facilitator or neither?; 7. Closer look at the new insolvency protection regime; 8. Implications for Ireland; Conclusion. 1. INTRODUCTION This paper focuses on the protections of tourists when a travel service due to be provided under a linked travel arrangement [LTA] is not provided because of the insolvency of the facilitator of the LTA. An LTA and a facilitator are new legal concepts introduced by the new Package Travel Directive 2015/2302 2 and will be explained later. The new law imposes an obligation on the facilitator of an LTA to take out security against the consequences of its own insolvency. The key provision in the new Directive is Article 19 [1] which states: “Member States shall ensure that traders facilitating linked travel arrangements shall provide security for the refund of all payments they receive from travellers insofar as a travel service which is part of a linked travel arrangement is not performed as a consequence of their insolvency. If such traders are the party responsible for the carriage of passenger, the security shall cover the travel’s repatriation.”. The aim of this paper is to show the policy drivers behind the extension of insolvency protection from package organisers to LTA facilitators, to explain how the new insolvency rules are similar to and differ from the rules contained in its predecessor, Directive 1990/314 3 . It will look closely at what travel arrangements, including airline seat-only sales, are inside and outside the new 1 Former Lecturer in Law, School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, Dublin Institute of Technology. 2 OJ L 326/1, 11.12.2015. 3 OJ L 158/59, 23.6.1990.