points (8) and (9) respectively of Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 other than a carrier’: An organiser, however, usually contracts in its own name and is not a mere intermediary. Furthermore, the Air Passenger Rights Regulation already includes a defintion of ‘tour operator’ meaning, with the exception of an air carrier, an organiser within the meaning of Directive 90/314/EEC.60 The proposal does not sufficiently take into account the significant differences between • the purchase of a flight ticket through an intermediary and • the integration of air carriage into a package travel contract. While in the case a purchase through an intermediary, the air carrier becomes the contractual partner of the passenger (regardless of whether it operates the flight itself or has it operated by another carrier), in the case of a package travel contract, it is the organiser with whom the traveller enters into a contractual relationship. If all travel services bundled in the package travel contract are charged at an all-inclusive price, the passenger does not even know the price of the flight. If, in the event of cancellation or long delay of a flight included in a package or in the event of (unjustified) denied boarding on such a flight, the passenger decides not to make use of alternative transport, this will also have an impact on the other travel services included in the package. It should therefore be distinguished between booking an air ticket through an intermediary and purchasing a travel package combined by an organiser. Contrary to an agent, the organiser is always responsible for the provision of the travel services included in the package travel contract,61 so that in the case of a travel package it could be considered obliging the carrier to reimburse the organiser instead of the passenger. The reimbursement process itself62 seems far too complicated and remote from practice: • the air carrier shall reimburse the intermediary within seven days from the passenger’s choice in accordance with Article 8 (1) (a), in one transaction through the same payment method which was used at the time of booking, and linking the payment to the original booking reference; 60 Surprisingly, no adjustment to the definition of the PTD 2015 is proposed. 61 Article 13(1) PTD 2015. 62 Article 8a No. 5 (a) and (b) CP 2023 APR. 15 THE NEW PASSENGER MOBILITY PACKAGE – HIGHLIGHTS AND LOW POINTS
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