THE CIVIL Aviation Authority is paying £1,000 a day in interest after the Air Travel Trust Fund went a further £2m into the red last year.
The back-up fund was drained of a total of £2.07m during the 12 months to March 1999 when 20 ATOL bonds were called and is now £7.4m in debt.
Most of this year’s burden – £1.65m – was paid out due to the failure of Sheffield-based Evergreen Travel Service.
CAAhead of licensing Helen Simpson said the ATTF, which is financed by a Government-guaranteed loan, can only be replenished by the introduction of a passenger levy following legislation.
However, this power will not be granted until at least 2001 because there is no time in the 1999-2000 Parliamentary session to discuss thesituation.
Simpson said: “At current levels, a levy of £1 per passenger would be sufficient, but we can’t guarantee that it will stay that way. If we have a big failure, who knows what the upper levy limit would be.
“We were first promised levy powers in 1991 when ILG failed, but nothing came of it.”