The CAA should forget its pursuit of online travel agency Travel Republic through the courts for alleged breaches of Atol regulation and get on with reforming the regulation.
That was the view of Thomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa, speaking at the ITT conference in Benidorm today.
He described the court case, which the CAA lost on appeal after an initial not-guilty finding in the magistrates court, as a “distraction”.
The CAA has the right to appeal that Court of Appeal ruling and take the case to the Supreme Court and, ultimately, to Europe if it chooses to.
But Fontenla-Novoa urged the CAA to drop the case. “The law should be changed. The CAA needs to get on with setting up new laws and new legislation.
“To me the CAA should just drop the case and get on with getting new legislation in place. The way it’s headed it’s going in the right direction, but going after Travel Republic is just a distraction.”
A Department for Transport consultation on Atol reform was completed earlier in the year and the industry is awaiting proposals back from government.