Guidelines on how to interpret changes to flight compensation regulations have been published today, but IATA says they leave many issues unresolved.

The European Commission has released the guidelines as a ‘stop-gap’ until reforms to EU 261/2004 are implemented.

Discussions about the new rules are in limbo due to a deadlocked territorial dispute between Spain and the UK over Gibraltar.

The European Commission hopes the guidelines will iron out any confusion over changes proposed in March 2013.

But airline body IATA said although they are an important step, there are still inconsistencies which need to be dealt with.

“A transparent and level playing field is important for passengers and airlines,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.

“Today’s interpretative guidelines are an important step to ensure that EU 261 is applied with greater consistency across Europe. The industry’s issues with EU 261, however, remain unsolved.”

He called on the European Commission to revise the regulations ‘to provide a better balance between passenger rights and airline obligations’.

“Everybody is frustrated when travel plans are disrupted. Passenger rights should be fair, simple, consistently applied and aligned with global standards,” said Tyler.

“Todays’ guidelines will help with the consistent application. That’s an important step, but follow-up is needed. Many of the March 2013 proposals are welcome but on top of that, more dialogue is needed to address remaining fundamental problems with the regulation.”