News: Tour operators slam Government over airline collapses
Flights > News > # 1908 (29/09/2008)
Britain’s two biggest tour operators, Thomas Cook and TUI, have said the Government is not doing enough to protect customers hit when airlines go bust.
The warning follows the recent collapse of XL Airways and Zoom Airlines, with fears mounting that more airlines will face a similar fate as the full force of the credit crunch hits the travel industry.
Manny Fontenla-Novoa, chief executive of Thomas Cook and Peter Long, his counterpart at Tui, have called on the Government to force airlines to be brought into the travel industry’s ATOL consumer protection scheme.
In a joint letter to Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, the company chiefs have demanded that the Government “undertakes an immediate review of consumer travel protection”.
Tour operators have to trade under the ATOL scheme, which protects consumers at a cost of £1 per customer, but airlines are exempt. In 2005 the Civil Aviation Authority recommended that airlines should be forced to take out ATOL protection when selling seats directly on their aircraft, but the Government chose to ignore that advice. Tour operators allege that the Government gave in to aggressive lobbying by the airline industry.
Long and Fontenla-Novoa said a recent survey suggests that half of UK passengers are unaware that they are not protected if booking flights directly through an airline, and called for a meeting with the Government to resolve the matter.
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