COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 concerning the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air
Date: 2021-12-10
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: air safety, airline, airport, civil aviation, consumer protection, disabled person, discrimination based on disability, passenger rights

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 10.12.2021  SWD(2021) 418 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  of Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 concerning the rights of disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air {SWD(2021) 417 final}  
 
 
Introduction 

Regulation (EC) No 1107/2006 concerning the rights of persons with disabilities and persons 
with reduced mobility when travelling by air (‘the Regulation’) complements Regulation (EC) 
No 261/2004 establishing rights for all air passengers. The Regulation was adopted to provide 
persons  with  disabilities  and  reduced  mobility  (PRM)  with  ‘opportunities  for  air  transport 
comparable to those of other citizens’. It aims to ensure that they are not discriminated against 
and  that  they  receive  free  assistance  when  necessary  so  that  they  can  use  air  transport.  The 
Regulation  has  been  applicable  in  the  European  Economic  Area  since  2008.  It  is  estimated 
that in 2018 around 9.8 million PRM benefited from the Regulation. 

Purpose and scope of the evaluation  

This  ex  post  evaluation  aims  to  assess  whether  the  Regulation  has  reached  its  intended 
purposes  and  to  determine  its  overall  intended  and  unintended  impacts.  The  evaluation  is 
based on the analysis of published pan-European data covering the period between 2008 and 
2018,  and  information  from  stakeholders  gathered  in  2020.  Its  scope  covers  the  period 
between  June  2008  and  February  2020.  Therefore,  the  findings  of  the  evaluation  do  not 
consider  the  impact  of  COVID-19,  unless  stakeholders  provided  specific  comments  or  the 
effects  of  the  pandemic  are  already  clear  and  unambiguous.  The  geographic  scope  includes 
the  27  EU  Member  States  and  the  United  Kingdom,  Iceland,  Norway  and  Switzerland, 
collectively referred to as ‘EU+4’. 

Main findings 

Effectiveness – Analysis of the progress made towards achieving the objectives  

All  stakeholders  agreed  about  the  overall  effectiveness  of  the  Regulation.  The  main 
improvements include the following: operators have a greater awareness of the needs of PRM; 
PRM  assistance  is  available  to  any  passenger  who  requests  it  at  all  European  airports  and 
airlines  at  no  extra  charge  for  the  PRM;  the  treatment  of  PRM  by  airlines  and  airports  has 
become more consistent across the EU; the quality of PRM services has also improved; and 
the number of incidents of PRM being denied boarding was reduced.  

However,  several  factors  have  limited  the  effectiveness  of  the  Regulation,  including:  the 
absence of clear requirements for disability-related training for staff who are in direct contact 
with PRM passengers; the fact that the current pre-notification services do not always allow 
PRM to provide details of the assistance they will need; certain legal gaps (e.g. no definition 
of  ‘recognised  assistance  dogs’,  ‘mobility  equipment’  or  ‘medical  equipment’);  and  denied 
boarding  incidents,  which  continue  to  occur.  Many  national  enforcement  bodies  (NEBs) 
cannot  make  binding  decisions  and  the  resources  deployed  for  the  monitoring  and 
enforcement (including sanctions) remain limited. 

Efficiency – Costs and benefits of the EU intervention 

The  mechanism  designed  to  fund  the  provision  of  PRM  assistance  free  of  charge  to 
passengers  benefiting  from  it  has  worked  efficiently.  The  cost  of  PRM  assistance  is  shared 
across all air passengers. PRM who request assistance constitute a relatively low proportion of 
all  air  passengers:  the  average  cost  of  PRM  assistance  amounted  to  only  EUR  0.55  per 

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passenger  in  2019.  The  average  cost  of  assisting  one  PRM  was  EUR  75  in  2019.  PRM 
assistance requests have increased since 2008. The individual costs and workload of NEBs are 
relatively  low:  they  have  so  far  received  a  very  low  number  of  complaints  (on  average  14 
complaints per million PRM passengers). Many NEBs do not engage in proactive monitoring 
and enforcement activities. Stakeholders who took part in the public consultation agreed that 
the costs of operators and NEBs generated by the Regulation are proportionate to the benefits 
gained  by  PRM  (who  have  more  opportunities  to  use  air  transport  at  a  much  lower  cost). 
Certain costs could be reduced through increased pre-notification for assistance requests and 
enhanced scrutiny of the cost of providing PRM with assistance. 

Relevance – The objectives of the intervention are still relevant today 

There was a consensus among the stakeholders who took part in the public consultation that 
the original objectives were relevant when the Regulation was adopted and that they remain 
highly relevant today, and broadly correspond to the current needs of passengers. Without the 
Regulation, the problems initially identified would most probably remain. However, while the 
Regulation  is  largely  fit  for  purpose,  a  number  of  problems  linked  to  recent  technological 
developments (e.g. transport of batteries, electric wheelchairs) have arisen. 

Coherence – Internal and external coherence of the intervention 

The provisions of the Regulation are in general coherent and consistent with each other. The 
Regulation  is  also  coherent  with  other  EU  legislation  dealing  with  consumer  rights  and  air 
transport, although there are sometimes inconsistencies between the different passenger rights 
regulations  as  regards  provisions  dealing  with  the  same  situations  (e.g.  pre-notification 
deadline,  liability  for  loss  or  damage  of  mobility  equipment)  which  might  confuse  PRM 
passengers. The Regulation relies on the provision of assistance to PRM but does not oblige 
airlines,  airports  or  Member  States  to  make  airport  infrastructure  and  aircrafts  more 
accessible.  Moreover,  there  is  little  scope  in  the  European  Accessibility  Act  (EAA)  to 
progress towards more physical accessibility of air transport, although it should ensure greater 
digital  accessibility.  The  modal  nature  of  the  EU  passenger  rights  legislation  causes 
difficulties for PRM travelling on multimodal journeys, as they may not be legally protected 
when connecting from one mode of collective transport to another. 

EU added value – Additional value resulting from EU interventions 

Because aviation is an industry dominated by cross-border services, passengers and operators 
derive  added value  from a coherent  and single European  framework of rights  while airlines 
and airports benefit from a level playing field.  Before the Regulation there were no binding 
rules at international or EU level to regulate this field: only nine Member States had national 
legislation  in  force  to  protect  the  rights  of  PRM  travelling  by  air,  which  did  not  result  in  a 
coherent  framework across  Europe. By building  on industry practices already established in 
some Member States, the Regulation has helped to ensure a better travelling environment for 
PRM, enabling them to travel by air with greater confidence and less risk of discrimination. 
Withdrawing the Regulation would most likely result in a return to varying approaches to the 
regulation of air PRM rights and the provision of PRM assistance services. 

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