COMPETITION AND TOURIST PROTECTION 275 and assistance in the event of denied boarding, cancellation of the flight or prolonged delay. The carrier had prepared an Internet link in Italian, in order to offer the choice between two options, namely refunding the fee or freely changing the route of the cancelled flight. However, it failed in clearly explaining the rights granted by the aforementioned regulation, in particular those of monetary compensation, established by Art. 5, in the absence of a replacement flight, “suggesting that the only alternatives (...) were those proposed, that the customers could activate”46. Incomplete and inaccurate information was also sent to ticket holders by individual text messages or e-mails. The cancellation was motivated by alleged organisational needs, linked to the pilots’ paid leave. At the beginning of 2016, the Irish authorities responsible for the regulation of airspace, security and surveillance of civil aviation, informed their companies that, for the purposes of their holidays, the solar calendar would be adopted in accordance with the practice in other EU states, offering over a year’s notice for adjustment. In Italy, the carrier cancelled “about fifty flights, totalling about two thousand, precisely because (...) of the fact that many of its employees (pilots and crew) had paid leave days they had not used, which lead to a decrease in punctuality”47, to the point that flight cancellation would have improved it and brought it back to the previous levels. For the company, this was not an unfair practice, as it did not refer to “the sale of any service”48. That is, there was no alleged inconsistency on the behaviour with respect to the definition of commercial practice. There was no connection with the sale of services and, in any case, a massive cancellation could not have been classified as an incorrect practice. For an individual, it was irrelevant whether just one flight or several flights (for the same reason) had been cancelled, and the company declared that it acted with professional diligence, as it had programmed “cancellations over a wide period of time, sending not just specific and individual messages, but also holding special press conferences about the issue”49. Moreover, the airline was ready to cooperate with the National Civil Aviation Authority, in charge of the application of Regulation (EC) no. 261/2004, in identifying improvements for the dissemination of the information. On the contrary, for the Competition Authority, “the simultaneous cancellation of a large number of flights (...) is a commercial practice, because it 46 Such is the text of the action taken by the Italian Competition Authority of on 29 May 2018, no. 27191, cit. 47 Such is the text of the action taken by the Italian Competition Authority on 29 May 2018, no. 27191, cit. 48 See the action taken by the Italian Competition Authority on 29 May 2018, no. 27191, cit. 49 See the action taken by the Italian Competition Authority on 29 May 2018, no. 27191, cit.
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