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Dnata B2B chief ‘not expecting government support for industry’

The boss of Gold Medal has said she “can’t see the travel industry getting any sector-specific support” and warned that “optimism isn’t a strategy for running a business”.

Asked if she expected the government to step in to help the travel industry, Lisa McAuley, B2B managing director of dnata Travel Europe, said: “They haven’t so far and I think it’s highly unlikely that they will do.”

And she said she was not banking on any financial support.

“I would never plan and I haven’t planned for it. I haven’t forecast for receiving any further government support post the end of furlough,” she said.

“The Job Support Scheme that was announced is nowhere near as good as furlough. I can potentially make it work and I’ll have a look at it, but I genuinely can’t see us getting sector-specific support.”

McAuley added: “We’re still in the storm at the moment. And it’s quite easy just to get drawn into the detail of the day-to-day, but that’s where I think everybody needs to lift their heads up and say, ‘right, we know we’ve got to live with this for some time’.

“There’s talk of vaccines – I was listening to somebody earlier this week, who was saying there was talk of three front runners for a potential vaccine, potentially this side of Christmas.

“But what I’ve also said is that optimism isn’t a strategy. You can’t just sit there and hope because it doesn’t matter how much you wish something to happen, that’s just not the way to run a business.”

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