On the subject of passenger protection, I am opposed to almost everyone I speak to in the travel industry.
The overwhelming view from the trade is: customers who buy direct from an airline deserve to be looked after if the carrier goes out of business, just as they would be on an ATOL-protected flight or holiday.
This week the Air Transport Users’ Council became the latest body to call upon the government to extend financial protection to passengers of scheduled airlines.
Charge every airline passenger £1, the argument goes, and we need never see the scenes of misery that accompanied the failures of Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, Zoom Airlines and XL Airways.
But as one of the most voracious consumers of flights and package holidays, may I ask for the right to be heard? The £1 levy is a silly idea.
The one key message that came out of the XL Leisure Group collapse was that people who had booked packages were protected. I fondly imagined the industry would celebrate this significant advantage over ‘DIY’ holidays, and, if anything, lobby against any extension of protection.
I did my best in the media to emphasise that travellers seeking to limit the risk should book a package every time – and to point out the lack of protection for people buying direct.
Let us imagine the government is convinced of the need to extend the levy, and all buyers of scheduled air transport are covered.
ATOL rules mean package customers who have yet to travel can expect a full refund in the event of a failure. I bet if scheduled passengers were brought under the same protection scheme, they would demand the additional elements of a DIY holiday – such as accommodation, transfers and rental cars – be refunded along with their fare. But no sensible protection scheme would offer such open-ended indemnity.
The result: anger and confusion, and all the scope for media mischief those emotions provide.
The present state of affairs works well for the majority of travellers. British Airways, BMI, easyJet, Monarch, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic and other airlines are not having an easy time, but I know if I buy a ticket for travel a year from now on any of them, my money will be safe.
If I have any doubt about a particular carrier, I can book with a credit card, or take out an insurance policy that covers failure. That is what the customer needs to know, rather than paying an extra £1 to bail out people who did not make it their business to understand rules on passenger protection.
That may sound harsh – but the present status quo works well for the package trade, the airlines and the passenger.
