MARCH 2020 PAGE 3 www.travelextra.ie Into the unknown Pandemic fears hit international travel and aviation T


Breakfast in the age of Coron-fear ransport


technology has


changed since the days of wagon wheels, but today’s


airline passengers know what it feels like to have been on the stage coach when it was robbed. John Spollen, the soft spoken President of the Irish Travel Agents Association, describes what has hap- pened since the outbreak of Corona- virus as a “wild west of aviation.” Airlines have abandoned customers and ignored consumer rights. Those who already booked, and


are looking at cancelled flights, are not getting tmoney back soon. Airlines have offered vouchers in- stead, to avoid a cash crunch caused by the refund of several weeks of cancelled flight bookings. An example is Aer Lingus, which


incentivises their vouchers by offer- ing 110pc of the fare value, and ex- tending their validity to five years. Inercontinental airlines have an-


other approach. They offer a voucher that offers a refund option after a year. If customers still want a refund in twelve month’s time, can get it. The problem is that these vouch- ers won’t help those households who now face changed financial circum- stances. The law has not changed. Every-


body on a cancelled flight is entitled to a full refund of their ticket value. Airlines know this, because in the early days of the coronavirus crisis, they went to Brussels seeking a voucher abrogation and did not get it. They did get an agreement that the Coronavirus cancelations will not be subject to EU261, which forces airlines to pay compensation, some- times of more than the flight value, for delays of more than five hours or cancellations within two weeks of take off.


They also got an agreement that flights cancelled because of falling


demand would count as “special cir- cumstances,” exempt under the law. But they are still forced to refund cash, not vouchers.


The order is being blatantly dis- regarded. For travel agents it is a nightmare scenario. They are in the firing line, having taken cash from customers and are now being told by the airlines they cannot give it back. Their customers are not entitled to vouchers form Aer Lingus. To make matters worse, Aer Lingus contacted their customers with the voucher offer, which did not apply to them. It means that airlines do not have to refund passengers because the flights have NOT been cancelled. . The airlines have offered flight


change options to these customers, without the usual change fee. Even this can come at a cost, with a fare difference to be paid if the new date is more expensive, driven by tchanges on to a reduced number of dates.


NEWS


ITAA Michael Doorley is the new and un- contested President of the Irish Travel Agents


Association, as the only nomination for the office. Mr Doorley served as ITAA President previously in 1982-3 and 2004-5.


CASSIDY TRAVEL opened their tenth shop in St Stephen’s Green centre. Donna


Kenny will be managing the shop, which opened at the end of February. Cassidy Travel now has 130 staff across all outlets.


GOHOP The Gohop leg of Atlas Travel, which was not part of the sale to Liam Loner-


gan’s Club Travel, is being wound down as a result of spiralling business insurance costs.


TRAVEL COUNSELLORS Lorna O’Brien has been appointed new Busi-


ness Development Executives joining the head office team in Cork. Lorna has 15 years of experience in the sales and travel industry, including 10 years in Tour America’s Cork branch as a travel consultant and sales team leader, Lorna’s new role will support the com- pany’s growth through the management of new business opportunities.


SPAIN remains Ireland’s most popular tourist destination with 2,177,106 visitors in


2019, up 6pc. Only USA and Russia showed a faster growth rate than Ireland as Britain fell in 2.4pc in anticipation of Brexit. Irish visits to Spain fell by 4.8pc in January to 85,375


CAR have put together a seven minute presentation that we will be sending out to


all businesses applying for a licence to aide businesses as they fill them out and are high- lighting certain information that needs to ac- company the forms.


TRAVELPORT has achieved level 4 NDC certification as an aggregator from


IATA. This certification confirms Travelport is able to provide full offer and order manage- ment and servicing of an NDC booking, com- plementing the current capabilities of voiding tickets and cancellations with new capabilities to modify and exchange tickets as well as pro- cessing refunds.


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