easyJet supports the aim of the legislation - to outlaw the odious practice of overbooking and to reduce the number of delays and cancellations that travellers suffer - but believes that the precise legislation is misguided; the devil, as ever, is in the detail.

easyJet firstly argued that compensation should be related to the fare that a passenger paid - not a flat rate fine. Secondly, it appears to contravene the EU's own rules on discrimination by being applied only to one form of transport (aviation) and not to rail services, coaches, ferries etc.

Finally, easyJet is very disappointed that the European Parliament has voted not to compile and publish league tables showing the different service standards of each European airline in a verified and audited format.

The legislation now goes to the European Council and possibly to a conciliation procedure with the European Commission. It is unlikely that any new laws will be introduced before Summer 2004 at the earliest.

Ray Webster, easyJet Chief Executive, said:

"What the European Parliament has voted through today is a nonsense. Levels of compensation should be related to the fares that passengers have paid - flat-rates only mean that the high fare traditional airlines have to sell fewer seats to afford the compensation. It also breaches the EU's own rules by only being applied to one form of transport. Finally, the proposal to ensure that consumers have access to service quality data to allow the comparison of different airlines has been thrown-out.

"So we are left with a possibly-illegal compromise which discriminates against those airlines, such as easyJet, offering the lowest fares in the market and leaving the consumer without any meaningful process for comparing one airline with another - hardly a great success."