NEWS — HOT STORIES 4
Travel Network Group backs CAA plan to axe SBA due to higher rate of failure
new financial regime for smaller firms, backed by figures showing the cost of failures among SBA holders outweighed payments to the consumer protection fund, the Air Travel Trust. But demands, led by Abta, that the CAA await
Ian Taylor
Travel Network Group managing director Gary Lewis believes the CAA would be wrong to retreat on plans to axe the Small Business Atol (SBA) for agents. He told Travel Weekly: “The CAA would be wrong
to retain the SBA because the work it did showed a higher proportion of companies with SBAs go out of business.”
The CAA announced plans to abolish the SBA for companies carrying up to 500 Atol-protected passengers last June. It also proposed a
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revision of the Package Travel Directive (PTD) have led the authority to reconsider. Travel Weekly understands the CAA now plans to retain the SBA while moving to a revenue-based scheme with new financial criteria and monitoring, and to delay any changes to coincide with a revised directive. Lewis said: “We supported the CAA bringing this in. It’s sensible. They said they were going to remove the SBA. They can’t just ignore it [the greater number of failures]. They would be allowing a higher proportion [of small businesses] to fail. “Any sensible underwriter would increase the premium or manage the risk better.
“They would be allowing a higher proportion of small firms to fail”
“There has been talk about whether they should do
it before the PTD [revision]. But Europe could take a year or it could take five. They should do it before.” The CAA will announce its decision on the SBA’s
future in early February. ❯ TNG aims to recruit new members, back page
Young quits Magic Rooms for G Adventures Lucy Huxley
Magic Rooms managing director Brian Young is to leave the bed bank at the end of February to join G Adventures as managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Young helped set up Magic Rooms
with former Thomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa, following the collapse of On Holiday Group, where Young was sales director. He said that he only ever planned to work for Magic for nine months, while establishing the company and helping secure jobs for affected OHG staff. After 11 years working in the accommodation-only arena, he said he was keen to move to another sector. Young will assume a new role at G Adventures that has been created with a view to significantly
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travelweekly.co.uk — 15 January 2015
expanding the operator’s business in the UK, he said. One of Young’s first tasks will be securing new distribution through the trade. “There is a huge opportunity, from a trade perspective,” he said. “I am keen to find new routes to market. G Adventures is sold by good independents and agents that specialise outside of the normal beach market, but we can stretch the distribution further with new agents. “The potential for agents is
massive. People want to see more of the world. People want to get up close and personal with different cultures and they want to do it in a
sustainable and responsible way.” Magic Rooms, meanwhile, was trading
a “bit ahead of expected” after seven months in business, according to Fontenla-Novoa. He said he was close to announcing a replacement for Young to take over the day-to-day running of the company.
MORE HOT STORIES
Gary Lewis
“We can stretch the
distribution further with new agents”
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