Airlines will be forced to compensate many more passengers for delays and cancellations under a move by the European Commission to close loopholes in the law governing the industry.

Passengers should find it much easier to claim up to £460 for a cancelled flight and to obtain free meals, phone calls and hotel rooms during long delays.

In an interview with The Times, Jacques Barrot, the European Transport Commissioner, said that many airlines were exploiting loopholes and leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Mr Barrot said he would issue new guidelines to clarify the rules. He would also prosecute national aviation regulators, such as the Civil Aviation Authority in Britain, that fail to enforce the rules.

Airlines will no longer be able to dismiss claims by arguing that staff shortages or maintenance errors had prevented them from operating the flight.

Mr Barrot, who was in London to attend the opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow by the Queen yesterday, said the burden of proof would be on airlines to demonstrate that they had taken all reasonable steps to prevent the problem from occurring. They will be required to supply logbooks, incident reports and maintenance manuals to CAA inspectors and will be fined up to £5,000 per passenger if they have falsely claimed that an incident was beyond their control.

Under a European regulation which came into force three years ago, passengers can claim €600 (£460) in compensation for a cancelled flight longer than 1,860 miles (3,500km), €400 euros for flights between 1,500km and 3,500km and €250 for those under 1,500km.

Mr Barrot said that airlines which claimed they had taken “all reasonable measures” would be subject to much more rigorous tests.

He said: “We have clarified the circumstances in which airlines are liable and member states will have to examine complaints very thoroughly. If it turns out that passengers are not having complaints properly investigated, I will bring infringement proceedings in the European Court of Justice against the offending member states.”

The Air Transport Users Council, the watchdog that refers unresolved complaints to the CAA, said the authority was failing to hold airlines to account. The CAA has not taken enforcement action against any airline despite receiving dozens of complaints.

The CAA, which is funded by airlines, refused to name any of the airlines it had investigated. It said it had dealt with about 25 cases and had four unresolved cases still under investigation. BAA, which owns Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, is mis-managing its monopoly and must be broken up, a report by an influential committee of MPs says today. The Spanish-owned company had “failed to plan adequately for contingencies which were far from unexpected”.

The report, from the House of Commons Transport Committee, said that competition was being “stifled by common ownership of several major airports”, with the natural development of the market being “held back”.

What was good for BAA was “not necessarily good for aviation” and there was “much to be gained from a state of affairs where BAA did not enjoy such substantial market power,” the report added.

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