The Government needs to legislate compulsory flight and holiday deferral
Steve Endacott
Chairman Life's Echo, Neural River, Neural Voice and Electric Car Organization | Travel Industry Thought Leader | Keynote Speaker | Sustainable Tourism Advocate
In times of crisis, people often ask “What can the Government do to save jobs”.
In the current Corona crisis, that is set to decimate the travel industry, the answer in my opinion is simple.
Allow airlines and travel companies, to make it compulsory for customers to defer holidays, until the Corona Virus has receded and normal travel can be resumed. This clause will only apply if FCO advice is not to travel to a county for a period and airlines are forced to stop flying, just as Jet2 have to Spain today.
Unfortunately, we live in a “Selfish World” and consumer left to their own devices, will demand full refunds under the package travel regulations or process recharges via credit card companies, under non delivery of products rules. Who can blame them, if these are the rules that apply.
However, the impact of this will send many travel companies and Airlines bankrupt. Airlines like British Airways are already going to suffer massive losses, due to having to ground aircraft and the difficulty in scaling back staff numbers fast enough. The bigger you are in a crisis, the more likely you are to go bust, so please don’t believe having a major brand is any form of safe guards.
Having to refund the millions of customers who have booked, but cannot travel for a period that could amount to months, will simply send airlines and travel companies bust.
The only solution therefore is for the Government to change regulations, to permit airlines and travel companies to mandatorily defer flight and holidays. They can then tell customers that they have to choose new dates for their holidays either next year, which is the safest solution or for later in the year.
The customer would still get the holiday they booked and paid for, but just a later date. Obviously, companies would have to waive all amendment fees and take the administrative burden of rebooking at no cost, but I can guarantee that every travel company I know would agree to this.
The alternative is wholesale collapses and an ATOL fund that has been so depleted by the Thomas Cook collapse, that it could not cope, forcing further Government funding.
Some customers may not be happy with this deal, but most would accept it as being fair and reasonable in these exception circumstances, if it saves jobs and keeps airlines alive. The alternative is fewer players and much higher flight/holiday prices when we come out of the other side of the Corona pandemic.
In a crisis cash is king and sorry customers, but we need to retain your cash for a while in order to survive.
Managing Director at JFD VERITAS LTD.
4 年So inward looking your eyes are pointing down your throat. Surely you can come up with something more feasible than creating a credibility issue to add to the crisis.
I don't do Digital Transformations, I make things better / cheaper / faster
5 年People are doing this anyway, why does it need to be legislated?
Board Advisor | NED | Mentor | Investor
5 年It's a really good sentiment, but to me this ends up looking incredibly self-interested. I'm all for helping the travel industry but i will do that by booking with the people i trust & where the best value for money is on offer. This is not the way to do it. In the good times, travel companies control the terms on which someone books but in the (very) bad times you want to force consumers to stick with you even if they may have perfectly fair reasons for just wanting their money back. Are you going to allow consumers to defer holidays on their terms then? Seems perfectly fair to me. Logistically impossible to control, and will tie the whole industry up in yet more red tape for months to come after the virus emergency has passed.
Sales Development & Enablement Wizard, SDR Coach & Neurohero
5 年If the holiday is ATOL protected... deferred and then airline goes bust. It’s protect anyway right? The government need to step in and help our travel industry now.