Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

162 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE arising from failed dynamic package. If repatriation obligations are appropriate for insolvent LTA-facilitators, why is it not appropriate for airlines?The consumer harm – being stranded away from home – is the same. The difference in the types of travel arrangement would seem to be irrelevant. However, it should be noted that airlines will often also be facilitators of LTA’s and in that way subject to the security obligation. And it may also be that since some airlines are likely to have large turnovers deriving from LTA’s, the size and cost of an annual security guarantee could be very significant with likely follow-on consequences. The EU Commission may wish to wait and see how that beds down before proposing anything else. Further, the looming exit of the UK from the EU may not be the best time to impose a new financial obligation on airlines. That said, the Commission and the EU law-maker do not have an entirely free hand in this area. EU law requires that EU legal measures respect certain core principles, one of which is that like is treated with like. Whether this principle might be infringed is discussed in Part 5 below. 4. CLOSER LOOK AT LINKED TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS [LTA’S] The major innovation of Directive 2015/2302 is the extension in Article 19 [1] of insolvency protection to consumers of LTA’s. To appreciate what travel arrangements are and are not caught by Article 19, some reference to the definition of an LTA in Article 3 [5] of the Directive is necessary. However, it is not proposed to reproduce that definition in its entirety or that of a package – since the reader is likely to be already familiar with these definitions – except as it may help to clarify the two main concerns of this Part, that is what travel arrangements are inside and outside the Directive. Whether LTA’s inside it comply with wider principles of EU law is a different concern and will be briefly considered in Part 5. What is inside and outside the definition of an LTA? There are two scenarios included in the definition of an LTA in Article 3 [5] – separate bookings made through a single website/physical premises [single point of sale], Article 3 [5] [a], and where separate bookings are made through different but linked websites and the second booking is made no later than 24 hours after the first is confirmed, Article 3 [5] [b]. What they have in common is that separate payments are made under separate contracts with different traders for each service as part of the same trip or holiday and where they differ is that, with