Heathrow contingency plans ‘paid off’ Ian Taylor
A four-day strike by Border Force staff at Heathrow over the weekend appeared to pass off with minimal disruption despite coinciding with the end of the school summer holidays in England and Wales. The strike over changes to roster
arrangements by 650 members of the PCS union at passport control across all four Heathrow terminals took place from August 31 to September 3. A leading aviation source praised
the contingency plans put in place by Border Force as “pretty sound” and said: “Border Force worked with the airport and industry on the plans. “We didn’t expect any meltdowns
or unmanageable impacts.” The disruption-free weekend
was in keeping with a summer that has seen vastly reduced levels of flight delays and cancellations compared with the last two summers, despite a few well-publicised incidents and continuing air traffic control disruption at Gatwick and across parts of Europe. An airline source noted:
“There has been progressive improvement, and it has been good overall. We had a couple of horrible years [in 2022 and 2023] and there was an enormous effort put in by everyone in the sector to make summer 2024 better.” The initial recovery in air travel
Designer Travel boss warns trade about ‘smarter’ fraudsters
Andrew McQuarrie
Designer Travel managing director Amanda Matthews has warned the industry to be alert to “smarter” fraudsters after her agency was conned out of £4,616. The business was forced to
reimburse the sum following a chargeback request after two women booked a week-long trip to Jamaica using a stolen Bank of Ireland debit card. The fraudsters made their enquiry with a Designer Travel homeworker several weeks before the August 25 departure date. Matthews highlighted three ways
in which she said this fraud booking was unusual: it wasn’t last-minute;
4 5 SEPTEMBER 2024
the fraudsters used a debit card rather than a credit card; and they readily supplied their passport details. “These fraudsters are getting
smarter and smarter,” she added. The women, who claimed to be
from Bournemouth and Eastbourne, booked a Tui package trip to the Hotel Riu Montego Bay, flying with Virgin Atlantic from Heathrow. Designer Travel became aware
of the fraud on August 30 after a chargeback was issued while the two women were still overseas. “We’re out of pocket by £4,616,”
said Matthews, who teamed up with the homeworker to report the fraud to authorities in the UK and Jamaica, as well as the affected suppliers.
There was an enormous effort put in by everyone in the sector to make summer 2024 better
from the pandemic shutdown was marred by staff shortages. But the source said: “It’s not just
about the recruitment numbers, it has been about the experience of people and being better able to manage. We’ve seen no more disruption than we saw in peak periods pre-pandemic, when some of the [passenger] numbers this summer have been really high.
“We’ve come a long way in a short
time and should be pretty satisfied. It’s easy to oversimplify and say ‘we’re only doing what we should be doing’. “But we’ve gone from being
at 15% of capacity to record numbers in two years. The industry has focused on resilience.” However, the source warned:
“We’re always sweating the assets. We have no head room in the system at all, so we’re always going to face problems.” The PCS workers at Heathrow
passport control have not ended their action, but now plan a work-to-rule and overtime ban until September 22. A Home Office spokesperson
said: “We’re committed to continuing our conversations with the union.”
Travel fraudsters conned the agency out of £4,616. Inset: Amanda Matthews
Matthews believes the chances
of recovering the money are “pretty much zero”, but she urged the travel industry to be more vigilant and has called for greater levels of cooperation when fraud is detected. “We need to get smarter as an
industry by working together in these situations,” she said, adding she is supportive of knowledge-sharing efforts and has used social media to highlight the fraudulent clients. Anti-fraud group Prevention of
Fraud in Trade (Profit) manages a database of confirmed fraudsters, allowing travel firms to carry out research on potential clients. Profit chairman Barry Gooch
said: “Travel companies need to be alert for circumstances that don’t seem right and, in those cases, either carry out further checks or discontinue the booking.” He added: “It is better to turn
down a suspicious £4,000 booking than have the far greater cost of dealing with that transaction if it goes wrong.” Action Fraud acting director
Claire Webb confirmed Designer Travel’s case was being assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau at the City of London Police. The Bank of Ireland said it was
unable to comment, but it takes criminal activity “very seriously”. Tui was also approached for comment.
travelweekly.co.uk
PICTURE: Shutterstock/
PeopleImages.com – Yuri A
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