address COVID-19 in the field of the Administration of Justice10 stands out for our purposes. Its sixth final provision amended the second additional provision of Law 7/201711, both in terms of its substantive content and structure, which was expanded from three to six paragraphs. Additionally, we must note that the third final provision of Law 3/2020 amended Law 21/2003, of 7 July, on Air Safety –hereinafter, LSA-. As a result, a new letter i) was added to section 1 of Article 52 -on the responsible parties for violations- and two new articles, Article 45 bis -violations related to assistance and compensation for passengers- and Article 62 bis -specifics in the initiation of certain sanctioning procedures-. All these provisions help reinforce -even indirectly- compliance with AESA’s decisions on assistance and compensation. However, the Law does not classify as a violation the non-compliance with decisions concerning passenger claims made under Regulation No. 1107/2006, which prevents their potential sanctioning12. Two points are worth noting. First, the general responsibility for ensuring high-quality assistance at airports rests with the airport operators13, although airlines can also breach the regulations. Second, the out-of-court dispute resolution procedure regulated in Order TMA/201/2022 is non-binding for airport operators -article 7.2.d) of the Order-14. This would explain the lack of classification of violations. The Order TMA/201/2022 came into effect the day after its publication in the BOE. However, according to its third final provision, it was applicable to incidents occurring after the first day of the month following the publication of the resolution accrediting AESA as the ADR entity in the field of air transport user protection15. As a result, its practical application was delayed for just over a year16 -until 2nd June 2023- as Order TMA/469/2023, of 17th April, which 10 BOE No. 250, 19 September. 11 For a detailed analysis of the content of the second additional provision, see RUEDA VALDIVIA, E., “Recurso a las entidades RAL acreditadas en España en litigios de consumo sobre transporte aéreo y eficacia extraterritorial de los resultados alcanzados”, Revista General de Derecho Procesal, nº 58, 2022, pp. 1-52, and “Aproximación al modelo español de resolución alternativa de litigios de consumo en el transporte aéreo: a tiempo aún de rectificar”, in ESTEBAN DE LA ROSA, F. (dir.), MORENO CORDERO, G. and OLARIU, O. (coords.), Justicia digital, mercado y resolución de litigios de consumo. Innovación en el diseño de acceso a la justicia, Aranzadi Thomson Reuters, Cizur Menor, 2021, pp. 361-423. 12 According to article 43.1 LSA, “The actions or omissions that are classified as such in this law constitute administrative offences in civil aviation”. 13 Thus, considering Recital 6 of Regulation No. 1107/2006. 14 See our comments below. 15 Regarding the requirements and the accreditation procedure, refer to RALUCA STROIE, I., “La acreditación de las entidades de resolución alternativa de litigios de consumo”, in ARIZA COLMENAREJO, M.ª J. and FERNÁNDEZ-FÍGARES MORALES, M.ª J., La resolución alternativa de litigios…, cit., pp. 67-78. 16 On AESA’s website, it was stated that “the first step was the publication and entry into force of Ministerial 34 ARÁNZAZU PÉREZ MORIONES
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