NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK
government decision to carry out a full repatriation.”
He added: “When dealing
with a mass repatriation, you’re reliant on third-party carriers you have to bring in at short notice. We used North American and Qatari planes. Many came at a premium, plus there were empty legs. That brings up the cost compared to normal rotations. [But] the costs we incurred were not dissimilar to those incurred in 2008 when XLwent bust.” Pitkethly said: “The govern- ment only helped people over a two-week period where there was limited capacity to bring them home. I don’t think anyone could have done it cheaper.” He also challenged the suggestion that a majority of passengers had unprotected flights, arguing: “About 20% were booked with one of the Monarch group companies, so protected by the Atol scheme. About 30% had booked with another Atol-holder. Broadly 50% (and not the same 50%) were also covered by credit cards. So broadly 75% of people had some sort of protection.” Cohen also insisted the
Monarch board placed the airline in administration, not the CAA. He said: “We can be clear. The board of Monarch took the decision they could not continue to trade. They had no reasonable prospect of continuing to trade. They had to close the doors.” However, Abta director
of legal affairs Simon Bunce warned: “We’ll face exactly the same problems again. Surely there should be a plan for this. After XL went bust there was going to be a review of financial protection. It still hasn’t happened. Is it going to happen now? Time goes on. Ministers change, governments change, and we end up years down the line faced with the same issues.”
Government ‘won’t put back’ date for Package Travel Regulations
Revised PTR ‘will come in on July 1’ despite delay
Ian Taylor Hill Dickinson travel law seminar
The Government is set to reject industry demands to delay the July deadline for enforcing new Package Travel Regulations despite missing this month’s deadline for their introduction.
A consultation on the draft
regulations is not expected from the Department for Business (BEIS) until the end of this month despite the government having been required to transpose the EU Package Travel Directive into UK law by January 1. The failure means the UK is technically in breach of its EU treaty obligations. Eirik Pitkethly, deputy director
of aviation strategy at the Department for Transport (DfT), confirmed ministers still intend to meet the July 1 deadline for the regulations to come into force. He said: “The government’s ambition is to try to achieve the
CAA ‘on track’ with draft for new package rules
The CAA has insisted it remains “comfortable” with the timetable for implementing new Package Travel Regulations (PTRs) despite the delay (see report, above). CAA head of Atol Andy Cohen
told a Hill Dickinson travel law seminar: “Obviously, we work very closely with the Department for Transport. We’re working on a consultation on the standard terms that go alongside the new regulations. Hopefully,
86
travelweekly.co.uk 18 January 2018
timetable. We have a responsibility to implement this law and could be subject to an unlimited fine for not having done so.” Pitkethly told a Hill Dickinson
travel law seminar at the end of last year: “Not achieving the timetable brings risks to UK companies. It means you’re out of synch with other companies in Europe, not offering the same protection other companies in Europe are offering, and therefore customers potentially have a claim against you under European law.” Thomas Cook group head of public affairs Stephen D’Alfonso
when the industry sees the draft regulations, they will also see the CAA consultation. We remain comfortable on the timetable.” Eirik Pitkethly, deputy director of
aviation strategy at the Department for Transport, said: “We’re confident that we understand the issues [and] the version of the regulations we publish will be more or less there. We’re not expecting large changes thereafter.” Abta director of legal
affairs Simon Bunce said: “It’s encouraging to hear we’re not anticipating any major changes. “If you’re a tour operator, you shouldn’t see any significant changes. Travel agents have a
told Pitkethly: “It’s not ideal to be preparing [for implementation] from a document that isn’t the final version. These aren’t simple changes. A lot of the system changes are quite expensive and you wouldn’t want to make those not knowing the final regulations. “The changes also come at a bad
time for the industry in the middle of peak season in July.” D’Alfonso said: “We’ve been look- ing at how we could maybe extend the implementation deadline. An extra few months would give the industry a lot of extra breathing space. The UK is not alone in this.”
D’ALFONSO: ‘It’s not ideal to be preparing from a document that isn’t the final version’
COHEN: ‘We remain comfortable on the timetable’
rather more fundamental process to go through, looking at how their business model fits in and where they might want to fit in.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96
