The collapse of Lithuanian Airlines - flyLAL – has once again exposed a gap in consumer protection, according to ABTA.

 

The carrier, which ran a service to Vilnius from Gatwick, is the 17^th airline failure in little over a year and follows on the heels of the likes of Eos, MaxJet, Silverjet, XL Airways, LTE and Oasis Hong Kong Airlines.

 

ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “This failure in a tough economic climate, along with numerous other airline failures who failed last year, highlights the importance of having financial protection in place when you book flights.”

 

Passengers who were booked with flyLAL will be protected if they booked their flights as part of a package holiday.

 

But other customers may or may not get their money back as the airline has stated that it is unable to provide refunds, ABTA said.

 

ABTA has repeatedly called on the government to require all airlines to provide financial protection for passengers. Scheduled airlines such as flyLAL do not provide protection against failure.

 

Travellers booking airline seats through an ABTA member can either buy them as part of a package holiday, which would protect them through the Package Travel Regulations, or they could take out a scheduled airline failure insurance policy.

 

by Phil Davies