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Ash briefs
■ Ash and unrest trap Brits in Bangkok
Around 2,500 Britons were stuck at Bangkok airport because of the ash crisis and political violence in Thailand. The backlog was partly cleared by three Thai Airways relief flights taking 1,500 passengers to the UK. The Foreign Office changed its advice on Tuesday to warn against all non-essential travel to Thailand.
■ Gill’s sees major boost in ex-UK bookings
Cruise agency Gill’s Cruise Centre has seen a surge in bookings for itineraries from the UK since last week’s volcanic ash crisis. It said that bookings for ex-UK cruises doubled on April 17 and trebled on April 18, compared with the previous weekend.
■ Fred Olsen repatriates UK travellers
Three Fred Olsen ships helped to get stranded holidaymakers back to the UK from mainland Spain and the Canary Islands. Balmoral, Boudicca and Black Watch picked up extra passengers, and the cruise line paid for the accommodation of 257 passengers who were stuck in the Caribbean after the end of a cruise onboard Braemar.
■ SAS rescues passengers via Facebook
Scandinavian Airlines used social networking site Facebook to help get stranded passengers home. SAS set up a page for affected customers, and more than 500 registered on the site. The airline said each post by a passenger received a personal response within an average of 10 minutes.
■ BMI claims first place in race to timetable
BMI said it was the first British airline to get its full international schedule up and running last Thursday. BMI also increased services to Middle East destinations including Cairo and Beirut.
■ Monarch brings 25,000 home
Monarch Airlines repatriated more than 25,000 stranded passengers last week. It flew an extra 63 services alongside its scheduled programme at the end of last week. All customers of sister company Cosmos have also returned home.
■ Cottages4you reports bookings boom
Domestic operator Cottages4you has been boosted by increased demand as holidaymakers looked for alternative breaks during the flights ban. The company said bookings for the next few weeks jumped by 25%, while sales for main summer holidays had gone up by 11%.
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FIVE-STAR REFUGEES: Celebrity Cruises’ Michael English (left) and Jo Rzymowska (second left) met some of the stranded holidaymakers rescued by Celebrity Eclipse when the ship returned them safely to Southampton. Eclipse entertainment, p20-21
30.04.2010
05
New threat to DIY cruise packaging
LIABILITY.
Katherine Lawrey and Charlotte Walsh.
THE EXPLOSION in cruise dynamic packages could be threatened by the fallout from the volcanic ash cloud, agents have warned. Speaking at a TTG round-table onboard
Celebrity Eclipse during last weekend’s launch cel- ebrations, agents said they could become victims of their own creativity in packaging cruises with flights and accommodation under their own Atols. Delmar World partner Howard Davies said the
sector had benefited from agencies such as his hooking cruise newcomers by packaging a ship journey with a villa holiday or Florida theme park, and 70% of those customers cruised again. “But maybe we are creating a vulnerable situation for ourselves. If we find there is an increased liability then we may need to be more reserved in our approach, which would be terrible for everyone involved,” he said. Cruise Club International director Graham Dullop said agents dynamically packaging cruise under an Atol had been hit by a “triple whammy” of cancellations caused by the Chile earthquake, snow in the UK and the volcano. “This has probably created a level of doubt as to the financial viability of some agents becoming tour operators, and whether their
balance sheets can be sustained,” he said. Dullop said some cruise companies encour- aged agents to operate under their own Atol, by offering them better deals because they wanted to reduce their own exposure to Atol business and let agents take the risk. Celebrity Cruises UK acting managing director
Jo Rzymowska said there could be a change in some agencies’ business models as a result of the ash disruption. “I hope it won’t be at the cost of creativity and getting new people into cruising,” she said. Celebrity owner Royal Caribbean Cruises’ liability for the crisis is estimated at $10.7 million, and Rzymowska said the government must now clarify consumer protection “once and for all”. Matt Stuart, managing director of accommo- dation specialist Getabed, said the ash crisis had made many agents “fearful” about their expo- sure for dynamically packaged cruises. But he said agents would face commercial
pressure to take the risk because cheap net rates from cruise lines meant agents could offer dynamic packages at much lower prices than the lines themselves.
■Eclipse’s future: round-table debate, p18
ash cloud crisis news
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