NEWS ROUND-UP IN THE PICTURE: Brazil nuts


Latin Routes will host 20 agents on two fam trips in South America later this year. The specialist operator announced the trips


during its inaugural roadshows in Manchester, Birmingham and London earlier this month, which were attended by 150 agents. The first trip will take agents to Brazil, visiting


Rio de Janeiro, Iguaçu Falls and the Amazon rainforest. The second will travel to the Patagonia


region of Argentina. Each fam will have 10 spaces available,


including several up for grabs in a competition Latin Routes will run later in the year, in conjunction with Online Travel Training. latinroutes.co.uk/agents


Saga’s revived graduation programme is ‘inundated’


Amie Keeley amie.keeley@travelweekly.co.uk


Saga has been “inundated” with applications for its new graduate scheme, which is being reintroduced after nine years.


The training programme,


spearheaded by managing director of Saga’s tour operating division, Jeannette Linfoot, will involve graduates undertaking a two-year placement across the Saga group of companies. Linfoot said the business


had received more than 345 applications for the six places on offer, including 20 from inside the company. The successful applicants will undertake a four to six-week placement overseas as a holiday rep or on board a ship, and the second half in a contact centre. Linfoot, who herself rose up the


ranks at Tui after entering through a Thomson graduate scheme, before working as a government


LINFOOT: Joined the Thomson graduate scheme in 1995


economist, said several senior Saga staff had begun their careers on graduate schemes. “It’s proven that schemes allow


graduates to get a wide variety of experience across the business,” she said. “Companies benefit because they end up with someone who has well rounded experience and stay with the group. So it’s a win-win.”


10 travelweekly.co.uk 20 July 2017 345


Total applications for the six places on the graduate programme


Each graduate will be mentored


by one of the company’s senior team members. But Linfoot said graduate schemes were not for everybody. “Some people come out of school who want to get straight into a role and we take a lot of people like that,” she said. “But some people like to have the structure of a scheme.” Saga is also offering existing


staff the chance to gain degree- level qualifications through its Senior Leaders programme. The company is using part of its Apprenticeship Levy funding to support the scheme.


Abta asks CAA to clarify £25.6m for contingency planning


Abta is calling on the CAA to clarify the £25.6 million in costs incurred on contingency planning last year. The UK regulator incurred costs


arranging a ‘shadow airline’ in case Monarch Airlines failed last year as it agreed a refinancing, as reported by Travel Weekly (July 13). The figure, two-and-a-half times the £10 million reported in the media at the time, features in the Air Travel Trust’s annual report. The CAA leased aircraft last


October fearing Monarch would be unable to meet financial requirements to renew its Atol, leaving 180,000 passengers stranded abroad. Abta said: “Given the scale of this cost, particularly in relation to the size of the overall Air Travel Trust Fund, Abta will be writing to the CAA, on behalf of Atol-licensed members. “We will ask for clarification


about the nature of these costs, whether the CAA anticipates similar costs being incurred in the future and, if so, how the ATTF will be protected against such costs.” A CAA spokesman said all


expenditure was “taken extremely seriously”.


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