Cancer survivor Hall sets up car rental consultancy


Juliet Dennis


A travel industry veteran who was given 12 months to live has set up a car rental consultancy firm. Kevin Hall, who has held senior


roles at companies including Travelport, Orbitz, Alamo, Dollar Thrifty and ebookers during almost 30 years in the industry, said he had been given a “second chance” after surviving a bone marrow transplant. Now in remission, Hall has set


up Autocarbookers to help car rental firms and brokers, as well airlines, agents and operators, grow their businesses by offering advice about training, planning, cost saving, technology development, sourcing new suppliers and distribution. “I have been given a second


chance in life,” he said. “During my career people gave me


a leg up; now I have an opportunity to give something back.” Creating a new business was not


something Hall thought possible two years ago when he was forced to stop work. He was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2017, with the cancer spreading


Kevin Hall Even in the darkest


times I never stopped believing I would live. Now I have a chance to give something back


after his GP referred him to King’s College London, which specialises in blood cancers and leukaemia. He jumped at the chance of


an operation in January 2019, despite its low success rate, and went on to spend most of last year in poor health and in hospital. But he said: “Even in the darkest


of times I never stopped believing I would live.” Hall began to recover last


to his bone marrow in 2018. This was diagnosed as a rare bone marrow cancer called myelofibrosis, with no known cure in the UK. Doctors gave Hall 12 months to


live. “I was told to start preparing for the end, but I never gave up hope,” he said. Several months later, however, Hall got the chance of a transplant


Heathrow to take case for third


runway to the Supreme Court Heathrow has been granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against a ruling concerning its third runway plan. Judges said Heathrow can challenge a ruling made by the Court of Appeal in February that found the government’s airports policy was “unlawful” as it failed to take into account climate change commitments. Campaigners have called on the airport to drop the plan. Heathrow is currently operating one of its two runways and two of its five terminals amid the drop in flying due to the coronavirus crisis.


8 14 MAY 2020


October, and in March he began to set up Autocarbookers, just as the coronavirus crisis hit. Despite the pandemic, the business has already secured several contracts and the promise of future work. “This was a chance to turn my life


around,” he said. “Now is the time to launch even if it’s just getting my name out in the market.”


OSandals awarded Travel Counsellors’ Lucy Althorpe with a £50 Amazon voucher for recreating a Sandals holiday or fam trip at home. She won the all-inclusive operator’s Wish You Were Here competition by submitting this photo of her two children.


Jet2holidays increases Atol licence


by 26% in a year to 4.8m passengers Jet2holidays has hiked capacity by almost one million seats in the wake of the collapse of Thomas Cook last September. Latest Atol figures show the operator with 4.8 million seats, up from 3.8 million in April 2019. Its new licence surpasses a 4.6 million target set by chief executive Steve Heapy in November 2019. EasyJet Holidays enters the top-10 list of Atol-holders with a licence for 726,000 carryings, complementing the airline’s own Atol for 794,000 and giving the group a combined Atol capacity of more than 1.5 million.


OCV Villas is donating 15 villa holidays to Corfu in 2021, with flights, to NHS workers, supermarket employees, delivery drivers, pharmacists and community volunteers. Deserving key workers can be nominated at cvvillas.com/heroes. Other worthy nominees not selected will receive a £300 voucher.


OSaga Cruises celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE Day by lighting up its ship Spirit of Discovery to mark the occasion in tribute to those who fought in the Second World War.


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