BUSINESS NEWS
The AAC’s
Alan Bowen believes the CAA’s focus on
Atol reform needs to be complemented by suppliers such as airlines providing refunds as required by law
Atol reform ‘could not come at a worse time’
CAA’s proposed changes could ‘devastate’ agents’ cashflow. Ian Taylor reports “That is not a statement on
The timing of the CAA’s Atol Reform consultation “could not be worse” and the proposals to ring-fence customer payments are “a major issue” for travel agents whose cashflow could be “gone completely”. That is the view of Alan Bowen,
legal advisor to the Association of Atol Companies (AAC), who stressed these are his personal views. But he told Travel Weekly: “You
couldn’t think of a worse time to be looking at radical changes to the way the industry works. “This is saying to people they’re
going to have to completely change the way they do business, in a market
48 15 JULY 2021
that is virtually non-existent.” Speaking on a Travel Weekly
webcast, Bowen said: “Although this is an Atol consultation, it affects every travel agent because it proposes that any money collected on behalf of an Atol-holder goes into a segregated account. That is a major issue for every agent because that is their cashflow gone completely. It’s important agents don’t dismiss this as something that doesn’t affect them.” Bowen warned: “I don’t think a lot
of people are thinking about this. “That is one of the issues. If we
don’t get this right, the CAA could do a lot of damage to a lot of businesses.
behalf of the AAC, because we have a consultation and there will be varied views. Some members already have trust accounts. Others are terrified of the thought and a lot of small businesses don’t understand how trust accounts work.” He argued the proposed reform
is too narrow in only focusing on Atol, saying: “The big problem in the last 15 months has been extracting refunds from suppliers. The law says airlines should make refunds within
Continued on page 46
travelweekly.co.uk
BUSINESSNEWS
PICTURE: Shutterstock/wk1003mike
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