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Bigger premises to fuel If Only’s expansion plans


Amie Keeley amie.keeley@travelweekly.co.uk


If Only intends to move to larger premises in Glasgow with room for an additional 30 staff, as it plans to “significantly increase” the number of passengers it is licensed to carry.


The luxury operator is consulting staff over the proposed move, which would involve its head office moving from Milngavie, just north of Glasgow, to the city centre by the end of the year. Chief executive Andy Freeth


said the business had recruited 14 additional staff since he joined three months ago, and planned to expand the team from 80 to 110 over the next five years. “We want to be more central


and have a bigger space we can move into. The reservations and marketing teams are running out of room,” he said. “We are proposing a move and consulting with staff on the viability of a new office.” The operator is licensed to


carry 8,500 passengers up until September, but Freeth said: “We’re currently going through the Atol


If Only chief executive Andy Freeth said the company was ‘running out of room’


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process and looking to increase [our licence] significantly from October onwards and next year.” He said from April to June, bookings were 40% up on last year, while call-handling times had improved by 15%. Freeth, along with Gordon


McCreadie, Tracy Docherty and David Irving, joined If Only in April after they all left rival operators Travel 2 and Gold Medal last June. If Only launched programmes to


the Caribbean and the US this year, and plans to add South America and South Africa in the first half of 2019. The operator is also in talks


with five luxury lines to launch a dedicated cruise programme in November, in time for the peaks. Freeth said the company was


“very close” to being able to email quotes to agents, something the trade had been “crying out for”. A bookable website is under development.


5 Agents warned of air ticketing scam


Harry Kemble harry.kemble@travelweekly.co.uk


Travel agents have been warned of an airline ticketing scam that has forced at least one business to close and fleeced the industry out of millions of pounds.


Industry body Prevention Of


Fraud in Travel (Profit) said 54 agencies had fallen victim to what is being termed ‘corporate referral fraud’. Fraudsters posing as


international employees of


global companies obtain a firm’s corporate travel agency details from its head office. They ask the agency to book flights, often for large groups, on their behalf. Flights booked by the corporate


agent are then sold on by the fraudsters. By the time the agency requests payment, the fraudsters have disappeared with the travellers’ money. Law enforcement organisations


have found it difficult to trace the criminals, who are based abroad. Investigators said agencies that had been targeted were losing


6 travelweekly.co.uk 19 July 2018


“For small companies, corporate referral fraud could be fatal”


between €55,000 and €100,000 – meaning the hit to the industry is likely to be in the millions. A UK agent and an agent from


Ireland have fallen victim to the scam, while a 30-year-old Estonian agency has gone bust as a result. Profit chairman Barry Gooch


sent an alert to UK members after being made aware of the scam,


which is believed to have been used on more than 600 bookings. He said: “For small companies,


corporate referral fraud could be fatal. Agents need to be very careful when accepting new contracts, and check them out.” The National Fraud Intelligence


Board is poised to issue a further corporate referral fraud alert in the coming days. Tonya Robertson, direct sales manager and anti-fraud lead at South African Airways, has alerted scores of agents, and urged them to invest in fraud-prevention schemes.


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