Abta chief Mark Tanzer expects an aviation agreement to enable flights between the UK and EU from next April, but has warned: “At the moment, we wouldn’t be able to fly.”
Tanzer told Travel Weekly: “We’ve been in this situation for two years now since the [Brexit] vote and the issues Abta put down before the referendum are still unresolved.
“I’m confident things will be sorted out, [but] we don’t want to get to the end of March next year and not know the [flying] arrangements from April.
“As things stand, the [UK-EU] withdrawal agreement depends on agreement on the Irish border and there isn’t an agreement. We wouldn’t be able to fly [from April].
“I don’t think that will happen. I know a lot of work has been going on. I don’t think that technically or commercially it is a big issue.
There is agreement from an aviation point of view, but the politics are not lined up.” Tanzer noted the UK outbound holiday market remains strong, saying: “Consumer spending has held up surprisingly well. The extent to which people are booking holidays despite the devaluation [of the pound] has exceeded my expectations.”
But he said: “We need to make sure customers feel similar confidence next March.”
Abta also wants to see the government’s Airline Insolvency Review make progress, with a preliminary report promised this summer following the collapse of Monarch last October.
Tanzer said: “The current [insolvency] situation is unsatisfactory. Either the government should tell people that if they fly with a scheduled airline they don’t have repatriation protection or tell people ‘We will bring you home’ and arrange a fund for repatriation.”
He said: “I hope the review comes up with something before the summer – and before we have another airline failure.”
Abta ‘is working to bring pressure on interchange fees’
Abta is lobbying the Treasury for help in tackling interchange fees on card payments which have failed to fall in line with the abolition of card transaction fees.
The EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) outlawed charges on consumers’ card payments from January, but the interchange fees banks charge retailers on credit card transactions can be 2%.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “Agents are in the most-difficult position – 2% of the cost of a transaction can be 20% of their revenue [on a booking], and agents feared they would see more use of credit cards when there was no cost of using one.
“The promise was that interchange fees would come down to cover the loss [of card transaction fees]. But they have not. That is a real hit to our members, particularly in the agency community. It’s a big part of their revenue.
“We’re compiling evidence [to show] to the Treasury. They are aware. We continue to work to bring pressure on interchange fees.”
Tanzer said: “We’ve not packed up [on this].” However, he warned: “Once we’ve made the case, I can’t see anything happening in the short term with everything else going on with the government.”