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BA’s Lime leaves operators sour

OPERATORS
have slammed British Airways’ new IT and net fare sales agent Lime Management
after a shaky start.

Lime,
which took over the handling of scores of operators’ fares on September, has
been accused of not having the full range of fares available and bungling
administration.

Midconsort
chairman and Tana Travel managing director Neil Basnett said: “I’m
absolutely livid, it’s what many of us thought – Lime just wasn’t ready.”

Basnett
claimed the company did not send an email password until four days after the
service went live and only contacted him to set up a direct debit service
during the last week in August.

He
also claimed the company couldn’t quote him several fares to South Africa
because they weren’t loaded into the system.

“This
has made me even more determined to sell away,” he said.

London-based
Travel Renaissance operations director David Butcher said the service had been
satisfactory, although he had ticketed 10 days in advance to give the company a
cushion.

He
said: “Several operators were concerned the company wouldn’t be ready on
its start date so they ticketed forward as a precaution.”

BA apologised for fares not being loaded and said the
situation was being resolved. It admitted Lime had a slow start but was now
“performing above expectations”.

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