Southall Travel Group has revealed it has refunded more than £110 million due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The operator, which has been in business for almost 40 years specialising in travel to the Middle East, India, the US and Far East, claimed to be one of the UK’s only major travel companies to have completed all refunds on package holidays which were cancelled due to the crisis.
The group “significantly invested” in both its customer care centre and its refund processing team shortly after the pandemic began to severely impact the business.
The company was able to make changes to its business while reducing administration costs by 65% “due to a unique cost structure that is both scalable for upsizing and downsizing”.
Southall Travel Group has also repaid all money received from the furlough scheme received from the government in 2020 and this year.
Company director Kuljinder Bahia said: “Last year was a year like no other for our industry. Whilst no one saw this coming and businesses were simply not prepared, we very quickly made the decision to ramp up our refund operations in order to meet with the demands of customers.
“Despite our business being significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, we recently made the decision to repay all furlough money received from the UK government, for 2020 and 2021. We felt it was ethically correct to take this action, and not add to the already extreme pressures on the public purse caused by the unprecedented pandemic.”
He added: “The Covid-19 pandemic has continued to impact our business, however with the incredible success of the vaccine rollout, and the recent positive changes positive to travel restrictions here in the UK which will make it much easier for people to travel abroad, there is certainly light at the end of the tunnel.
“These changes have had a positive impact on trading, and we are now much more confident that bookings will soon return to pre-pandemic levels.
“I am incredibly proud of the team here at the Southall Travel Group, who have worked so tirelessly and adapted seamlessly to the new way of working throughout the pandemic.”