p4 news Apr17 15/4/09 20:49 Page 4
news
17.04.2009
Privacy issue
Iata gives ground
enrages agents
AGENTS are objecting vigorously to Iata’s refusal in bonding battle
to confirm whether or not it will comply with new
European laws on privacy for customer data.
The European Commission’s GDS Code of
Martin Ferguson.
UK parent accounts had to meet Iata’s
Conduct gives agents a veto on agency-gener- IATA has caved into pressure from
COVER
financial criteria.
ated traveller information being sold by GDSs. travel firms following complaints and One profitable firm whose parent
There were previously no restrictions, but a court case challenging its demands
STORY
company had a £50,000 deficit in its
travel management companies believed allowing for multimillion-pound bonds. net current assets was asked for a
GDSs the freedom to sell data to airlines worked TTG understands that one firm, a £12 million bond, TTG understands.
against them in commercial negotiations. household name that was previously However, following advice from PwC,
After successfully lobbying the European unbonded, was asked to provide a bond of Iata members voted on Wednesday in favour of
Commission, agents must now opt-in to allow the around £30 million. recommendations to review its rules.
information to be sold. Another mounted a successful legal challenge If approved by Iata’s airline-only working
But Iata is refusing to give the trade the to Iata’s increased demands for financial secu- group the Passenger Agency Association,
option, claiming the law is not applicable to its rity, based on rules it agreed in 2007 but did not consolidated group accounts will be looked at
organisation. It collates passenger data from the fully implement. with each case evaluated on its own merit.
Billing Settlement Plan payment scheme. A source said Iata was “running scared” from A decision could take up to two months, giving
The Guild of European Business Travel Agents, its airline members, which have forecast what one observer called a “stay of execution”
the US-based Business Travel Coalition and the £4 billion of losses in 2009 and accused the for companies facing huge bonding demands.
World Travel Agent Associations’ Alliance have association of being “impossible to deal with”. Sue Parsons, Abta’s trade relations manager,
all mounted campaigns against Iata. Iata appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as said Iata was putting right something it had
consultant after it started enforcing the 2007 “inadvertently got wrong”.
rules more strictly last year. Previously, any Three UK travel firms are known to have
Tui morale ‘high
travel company that had traded profitably for at made formal complaints to the Swedish-based
least three years was exempt from bonding. Iata-funded Travel Agency Commissioner, which
despite pay freeze’
The 2007 rules stated a travel company’s handles agents’ disputes.
TUI Travel chief executive Peter Long has claimed
staff morale at the travel giant is high, despite
Agent urges support for APD petition
the decision not to award inflation-based pay
rises this year. A SPECIALIST Caribbean agent is urging anyone his business by forcing many customers to cut
The stance contrasts sharply with the policy at who has not yet backed TTG’s Fair Fares back on visits.
rival Thomas Cook, which has said it will award a petition to sign up before the budget Current proposals will unfairly hit the
performance-related 1.5% pay rise. next week. Caribbean, placing its islands in the same tax
Asked about letters of discontent TTG had Newmont Travel general manager band as the east coast of the US and Hawaii.
received over salaries, Long said: “There’s a great Lindsay Ingram triggered a surge of An Abta spokesman said it wanted the tax
spirit in the company. It’s a very professional but support for the petition this week by reformed or abolished in the budget, and will
pleasant working environment. sending emails to customers on his continue the fight if this does not happen.
“There will not be another wave of restructur- database, urging them to sign. The Dutch government has already scrapped
ing because the business is performing, but The response took the number of signatures the tax, and Abta is calling on the UK to follow
we’ve still got to be prudent. to more than 4,500 by Wednesday, and Ingham suit or risk losing out to other European hubs
“Sometimes that means taking difficult said the trade could ensure it went much higher such as Amsterdam Schiphol.
decisions, and not everyone will be happy.” before Sunday’s deadline.
Ingham, who runs the largest Caribbean ■ Sign the TTG Fair Fares petition at
■ Special treatment for Tui staff, p10 seat-only agency in the UK, said APD would hit http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/APDtax
04 17.04.2009
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