Co-op Travel MD slams government over ATOL confusion
Around half of all holidaymakers are at risk of not being properly financially protected, according to The Co-operative Travel.
Speaking in the aftermath of the collapse of XL and Zoom, managing director Mike Greenacre has renewed the call for the government to urgently review its attitude towards consumer protection.
“Research conducted by our in-house team suggests that over 45% of customers believed that if they had booked a scheduled flight direct then they were protected financially, when in fact they were not,†he said.
“The Co-operative Travel is now planning a major campaign to reemphasise this issue with holidaymakers.
“We were disappointed earlier this year when the government introduced the ATOL Protection Contribution scheme which replaced bonding as the main protection for customers with the £1 fee. It should have been a scheme with much wider scope to include scheduled flights.
“Whilst XL Leisure may have been conceived as a large tour operator – perhaps afforded that status by its ownership of Kosmar Holidays – the fact remains that it is really an airline and consumers should be reassured that the main failures and risks lie within the airline industry and not tour operators.
“The airline sector has become highly competitive in the past few years since the advent of low-cost carriers. New routes that have opened up, coupled with new plane capacity in the market, requiring constant high level load factors. With oil unlikely to stabilise below $130 a barrel, in the long term competition is likely to be even fiercer for airlines to fill their seats to capacity.”
The Co-operative Travel is undertaking a number of initiatives:
It plans to put permanent point of sale in agency windows, provide leaflets for customers and extra training for staff.
It is also going to review supplier arrangements, including risk assessment, and continue to lobby the government.
“It is ironic that travel businesses like ourselves who take every step and make every effort to be compliant with regulations, are now going to be penalised financially for such compliance, whereas those that have ignored the regulations will have no financial responsibility to their clients and will get away with it. That is totally unacceptable to us, and, I would suggest, to the rest of the industry,†added Greenacre.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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