BRUSSELS -- European Union countries agreed on Friday to maintain the current three-hour flight delay threshold for compensation in the EU’s next set of airline passenger rights and to ask for more price transparency on fees for carry-on items, a senior EU diplomat told reporters. The 27 member states will now send their proposal to the Parliament, which will evaluate it from Monday, the diplomat said. The European Parliament and the EU member countries had disagreed over a package of measures first put forward by the European Commission, the EU executive, more than a decade ago. The Commission had proposed to raise the threshold for compensation to four hours and the member states had sought to cap the amount at 500 euros. Under rules in place since 2004, air passengers on flights delayed by more than three hours can claim compensation from 250 up to 600 euros, depending on the length of the flight. The member states have decided to keep the status quo on the contentious question of compensation for delays. That issue had pitted airlines, which demanded more flexibility to remain competitive, against consumer protection associations. On the other contentious issue - the fees charged by some airlines for carry-on baggage - the member states have proposed forcing airlines to include fees for cabin bags in their basic ticket price, with the possibility of offering discounts to consumers who opt out. The measure intends to improve price transparency and comparability. Those fees have been widely criticized by consumer rights associations around the EU and sparked a political battle in 2024, when the Spanish Consumer Rights Ministry fined budget airlines 179 million euros for charging them. The airlines are appealing against the fine. The countries have also left unchanged rules that allow an accompanying adult to sit near a child without paying a fee and that force airlines to grant more services in cases of missed connections. They also prevented airlines from forcing passengers to download a mobile phone app to get a boarding pass, a practice Ryanair introduced in November. (Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Foo Yun Chee and Edmund Klamann)
