Focus Travel Partnership members provide emergency repatriation service
Fifteen members of the Focus Travel Partnership are pooling their resources to provide an emergency repatriation service for any travellers urgently wanting to return to the UK.
Called Helping You Get Home, the service will be available 24/7 from midday on Friday.
The 15 participating travel management companies aim to assist any traveller, whether they’ve been on a business trip or backpacking.
Focus CEO Abby Penston said: "The travel landscape is incredibly complex at the moment. With airlines cancelling routes and grounding aircraft due to the rapidly changing government advisories, our partners are telling us that they are experiencing a surge in demand from consumers, who are finding it difficult to make their own travel arrangements and are needing to return home.
"Many of these requests are not easy to fulfil, but our partners, who have live-data feeds on the status of airlines and who are used to fulfilling complicated customer requirements, are specialists and are the right experts best-placed to help out.
"This is why we are rolling out this service to the wider public, not just to corporate travellers.
"Many of our business travel agents also have leisure divisions, and these teams can dedicate time to helping those who need to get back to the UK. So, whether you are travelling for business or leisure or you have been on a five-star luxury trip, or are back-packing around the world and are having problems getting home, we can help."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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