Furlough extension ‘is brilliant news’


Travel Weekly reporters


A four-month extension of the government’s furlough scheme to October 31 has been welcomed by a host of travel agencies. The Job Retention Scheme, which


pays 80% of salaries up to £2,500 a month, will be extended for all sectors and regions, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced on Tuesday. From July, the scheme will


allow firms to bring workers in on a part-time basis if they contribute a percentage towards the 80% salary. Miles Morgan Travel chairman


Miles Morgan said the scheme had “massively exceeded expectations”. He welcomed its extension and without dilution of cover to 60% of salaries as had been predicted. “To have flexibility we didn’t have


before – you couldn’t hope for more than that,” he said. “By October you would hope there would be better news on a [Covid-19] vaccine.” Without an extension to the


scheme, large-scale redundancies across the industry would have been inevitable, Morgan added. Gemma Antrobus, owner of


Haslemere Travel, described the announcement as “excellent news” and said allowing part-time work was “much more realistic”.


Fred Olsen Travel head of


commercial Paul Hardwick said he would now rotate staff to work three or four weeks at a time. But he called on the chancellor to


allow special dispensation for sectors such as travel, which is having to process refunds while also suffering big drops in sales revenue. Hardwick suggested furloughed


agents could work on processing refunds, allowing staff paid by travel firms to focus on new bookings to bring money into the business. “The whole point of the


[furlough] scheme is to prevent redundancies, but if we’re not making enough sales it will just lead to redundancies in the end anyway,” said Hardwick, who said Fred Olsen Travel had rebooked £1.5 million of business in eight weeks but was still chasing 850 refunds from operators. Mark Johnson, director of Polka


Dot Travel, agreed a sector-specific scheme would be “a great help” and “take the pressure off” other staff to focus on 2021 sales. Jill Waite, owner of Pole Travel,


said: “Great news that our staff can still be paid.” The scheme has so far supported


a million businesses and 7.5 million employees at a cost of £14 billion a month to the Treasury.


Health minister Matt Hancock on ITV’s This Morning on Tuesday


Quarantine ‘wil Ian Taylor


The government’s planned imposition of 14-day quarantine restrictions on arrivals as Europe emerges from lockdown threatens to halt any travel recovery at least until autumn. Health secretary Matt Hancock


admitted as much on ITV’s This Morning on Tuesday when he conceded: “It’s unlikely international holidays are going to be possible this summer.” His comments were dismissed


Boris Johnson expressing “serious concern and frustration” following the announcement, pointing out: “People will simply choose not to travel to and from the UK.” Hopes travel might resume this


STORY TOP


as “personal opinions and not government policy” by Jet2holidays, which is to press ahead with plans to recommence holidays on June 17. But Willie Walsh, chief executive


The government this week extended the furlough scheme to October 4 14 MAY 2020


of British Airways parent IAG, told MPs on Monday: “I wouldn’t expect us to be doing any flying, or very little [with the restrictions].” Aviation leaders, including the


heads of easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2.com, Heathrow and Gatwick, wrote to


summer were further dashed by news that Spain will impose 14-day self-isolation rules on arrivals from Friday, while foreign secretary Dominic Raab discounted the prospect of unrestricted travel to France despite Johnson and French president Macron agreeing to forgo quarantine at UK-French


borders. Raab said the arrangement would focus on “common-sense measures” to maintain shipping. Johnson gave no details of the


quarantine rules on Sunday. The government said on Monday


it would require all international arrivals “to supply contact and accommodation information [and] to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival” and the measures would be introduced “as soon as possible”.


travelweekly.co.uk


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