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SPAA News

21-01-2010

SPAA’S SUBSTANTIVE RESPONSE TO EC PACKAGE TRAVEL CONSULTATION


Association reinforces call for financial protection of all air-based arrangements ...

In its substantive response to the European Commission’s consultation on the 20-year old Package Travel Directive, the SPAA has renewed and reinforced its call for an all-encompassing review of the current, defective consumer financial protection system in operation in the UK.

The Association’s submission - delivered to the EC, 20 January – calls for any review to lead to the introduction of a new, coherent and transparent system of travel consumer financial protection covering all air-based travel arrangements, whether or not they fit the traditional ‘pre-packaged’ model which, the SPAA maintains, increasingly does not reflect actual booking and purchasing habits in the UK.

The Association re-iterates its long-espoused view that all airlines should be required by law to be part of any new financial protection system, not least in recognition of the fact that no airline – whether low-cost or full-service – can now be considered to be beyond the risk of financial failure.

The SPAA also makes clear its view that all travel booking channels – airlines; traditional tour operators and online travel services providers; telephone and web-based contact centres – should be caught within any new system, ensuring that every air-based travel purchase – whether or not it includes additional products and services – is 100% financially secure for the consumer.

Travel associations in the UK are in general agreement on how a new system should be organised and operated, and the SPAA, ABTA and other interested parties continue to discuss and co-ordinate their lobbying efforts. Representatives of the two Associations will be participating in a forthcoming meeting with the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Department for Transport, to further clarify and explain their views and objectives.

Brian Potter – SPAA President comments, “We are clear and unequivocal in our position that the current system of consumer financial protection is broken beyond repair, and that the EU and the UK must develop, as a matter of urgency, a new regime in which all consumers can buy travel products and services via the channel which best meets their needs, absolutely secure in the knowledge that their money is protected. The ongoing consultations in Europe and the UK give us the opportunity to help get this right for the future!”

MTB 21/01/10


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