HAPAG Lloyd is struggling to obtain an ABTA licence for its UK office unless it pays thousands of pounds to register its German offices as members of the association.
The Bremen-based business travel agency opened an office in Barking, London, in January but has so far not been able to gain ABTA membership.
Under existing ABTA membership rules, Hapag Lloyd can’t get a licence for its UK office unless it registers all of its branches in Germany – even though there is no benefit in these offices having an ABTA licence. The cost is over £100 per agency. The only alternative is for Hapag Lloyd to set up its London office as a separate company. Katia Flockerzi, who is in charge of Hapag Lloyd’s European offices, said she could not comment at this stage on what the agency planned to do.
In the meantime, ABTA’s Travel Agents Council and Tour Operators Council are looking at whether to change the rules so that the fee is reduced for overseas branches in this situation.
An ABTA spokeswoman said the councils had asked head of financial monitoring Mike Monk to draw up a paper outlining how the changes could be made. The matter will then go back to TAC and TOC for further discussion.