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ABTA chief slams CAA and Government following Monarch collapse
ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer has slammed the CAA for not being fully transparent with British holidaymakers over ATOL protection.
He also attacked the UK Government for its decision to repatriate all Monarch passengers stranded abroad, irrespective of whether their trip was protected by the ATOL scheme.
Speaking at the association’s Convention this week, Tanzer said the failure of Monarch has highlighted and exacerbated confusion over ATOL protection.
"The Monarch failure has showed that consumer protection in travel is not well understood and and there is a gaping hole at its centre," he told delegates.
He criticised the CAA for not being completely transparent in its communications about protection.
"Part of the ATOL Regulations stipulate that even if you sell only one ATOL protected package a year, you have to advertise yourself as ‘ATOL Protected’. Only five percent of Monarch’s passengers were travelling on Monarch package holidays, yet to the outside world Monarch was an ‘ATOL Protected’ company," said Tanzer.
"ATOL protection does not apply to a company, it applies to a particular set of holiday arrangements, and the CAA should be much clearer in telling people about this, as we are at ABTA. This really does matter when you have 110,000 people overseas and another 700,000 yet to travel."
He said the Government’s decision to repatriate all Monarch overseas customers – at a cost of £60 million – was ‘completely unsatisfactory’ and sets a dangerous precedent.
"The tax payer will end up picking up a large bill, whatever happens, and the industry is left wondering what is the point of ATOL protection if everyone gets brought home anyway? And it sets a precedent for the next airline failure, where customers will expect the same free repatriation," he said.
He said ABTA has long argued for an all-flights levy but has been rebutted by successive governments.
"Surely the Monarch example makes an unanswerable and urgent case for revisiting the issue?" he said.
Tanzer also referred to a recent Which? Travel survey which showed the travel trade itself does not fully understand ATOL protection.
"If we don’t understand, how can we expect the poor customers to understand what’s happening," he said.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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