New protection scheme a dog’s dinner: J.Skidmore

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After a long period of consultation, the Civil Aviation Authority has published its recommendations for extending holiday protection. Although an improvement, they are really only replacing one dog’s dinner with another. Under the proposals, scheduled airlines will pay a levy of £1 or £2 per passenger and the money will go into a pot to pay people off in the event of a collapse. This is long overdue. The number of holidays covered by the traditional air travel organiser’s licence bond has declined sharply in recent years as people have switched to no-frills airlines. Let’s hope the government takes notice and acts, although any new law is unlikely to come in before 2005. Pessimists will recall the government promising to take action over scheduled airlines following the collapse of Air Europe in 1991 and we’re still waiting. But even with this new protection for users of airlines, consumer protection is still full of holes. Dynamic packaging is a huge growth area but people booking, for example, hotels and car hire over the internet will not automatically be protected. Of course, the government cannot force a hotel in Lombok selling over the net to provide protection, but it could force changes on companies affiliated to UK airlines. The CAA hopes no-frills will also provide protection for hotels featured on their websites, as it will not cost them any more money. But the bottom line is it will cost them – even if it is just in administration – so there’s no guarantee they will comply. Surface transport operators are not included, either. Buy a ferry or coach trip as part of a package and you’ll be OK in the event of a collapse. But you won’t get a refund if the trip is bought in isolation. And did you know there are seven government approved schemes of consumer protection? No, thought not. The public doesn’t care or know who it is bonded with, it just wants to make sure it will get a refund if anything goes wrong. Surely there’s a justification for one body – even if it is only a central co-ordinating authority for all bond providers – for the public to contact when things go wrong? And shouldn’t surface transport providers and hotels selling on UK airline websites provide cover for people? Unfortunately it’s unlikely to happen unless there is some kind of disaster leaving thousands of people out of pocket. When it comes to protecting holidaymakers’ money, the government doesn’t believe in pre-emptive action. It takes the view that if there hasn’t been a huge collapse, then there can’t be a problem. Roll on the summer season!