p4 News Feb27 MATT 25/2/09 19:18 Page 4
news
27.02.2009
Airlines seek a
Egypt and Turkey
reform of APD
buck gloomy sales
AIRLINES are upping pressure on the
Treasury to reform Air Passenger
Duty (APD) to stop it destroying
Chris Gray.
Smalley said agents could benefit from their
premium-economy classes. BOOKINGS to Egypt and Turkey are up by nearly success because they could move towards sell-
It is understood that repre- a third for this summer, bucking an overall ing the same products year round.
sentatives from airlines will market decline of 11%. “A smaller number of destinations can be un-
meet Treasury officials next The summer performance of the two destina- derstood in depth, this helps to provide cus-
week to warn that the changes tions mirrors their results this winter, when tomers with the quality of information that they
would have a disproportionate impact Turkey was up 44% and Egypt 30%, against an want,” she said.
on premium-economy passengers. overall decline of 7%, according to latest figures Operators would also benefit from their devel-
Under the plans, passengers in premium- from research company Ascent MI. opment as year-round destinations by getting
economy, business and first-class will pay twice Their emergence as leading year-round desti- economies of scale on flights and hotel contracts.
as much APD as those in economy – bringing nations is due to a combination of reliable winter
the tax up to £120 for mid-haul and £170 for sun and the construction over 10 years of large ■19-page Greece, Cyprus & Turkey feature, p35
long-haul flights from November 2010. quality hotels that meet the needs of a range of
A short-haul premium economy upgrade with customers, such as couples or families, said chief
Market update: Bookings
First Choice starts at £19 and airlines fear the executive Sarah Smalley.
extra tax will push it beyond customers’ budgets. The size of the properties and their bars,
Winter 2008-09 Summer 2009
Egypt + 30% +15%
“It is disproportionate and there are fears it restaurants and leisure facilities meant they
Turkey + 44% + 32%
will kill the premium-economy product if it is not were well suited to all-inclusive holidays, which All-inclusive +14% +9%
changed,” said an airline source. rose 14% this winter and 9% for summer 2009.
Market -7% -11%
Together Egypt and Turkey accounted for 12% Source: Ascent MI. Ascent MI’s figures cover bookings until the end of January 2009
compared with same period in 2008 for big tour operators and most Abta agents
■Join the 2,200 people who have already of winter 2008-09 holidays and 16% of summer.
joined our Fair Fares campaign and help change
the tax – sign our Downing Street petition at
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/APDtax
Bomb will not hit
Cook sorry about
bookings to Egypt
wrong surcharge
EGYPT is confident that visitor numbers to the
destination will continue to rise, despite a bomb
THOMAS Cook has apologised for wrongly charging exploding in a Cairo market on Sunday.
two customers fuel surcharges for a Ryanair flight. Discover Egypt managing director Philip
It said the incident, when the customers were Brecker is certain the explosion, which killed a
charged an extra £160, was an isolated case that French tourist and injured 20 others, will not put
was the result of a “system error”. British people off travelling to the country. people are resilient to the threat of terrorism.”
Ryanair said the case exemplified how agents “Since the Sharm el Sheikh bomb a couple of Discover Egypt had 50 people in Cairo at the
and “screen-scrapers” add unjustifiable fees to years ago, tourism has increased quickly,” he time of the explosion and 50 more due to go in on
its flights and demanded to know how many said. “Security in the country in the years since Monday, only two of whom cancelled.
customers had paid “fictitious” fuel surcharges. Luxor has been very stringent.” FCO advice, which has not been altered, reads:
A Thomas Cook spokesman it would refund the FTO director general Andy Cooper said: “Be- “There is a high threat from terrorism. Security is
customer and investigate the booking, which was cause there were no British people caught in the tight throughout Egypt, especially in resort areas.
made in April last year for travel in September. explosion, the bomb attracted little media atten- There is a risk of indiscriminate attacks.”
Ryanair claimed the customer was also over- tion here. But even with more press coverage, I
charged for the face value of their tickets. don’t think it would have made an impact because ■ More at ttglive.com/fco/knowbeforeyougo
04 27.02.2009
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