p5 oct24 22/10/08 20:23 Page 5
ttglive.com
news
A plea for
An open letter to tour oper
travel’s future:
ators, airlines, the C
AA and go
vernment
IT’S
TIME T
O GIVE CREDIBILIT
Y TO
OUR INDUS
TR
Co-op boss’s
Y: S
TAND UP AND BE C
You may have noticed my negative comments regarding another
OUNTED
quick-fix airline (Co-op bans sales of Kiss Flights: TTG October 17).
open letter
I now want to address how, as an industry, we move forward.
How do we give our customers the confidence they need, and our industry
the credibility it deserves, in what is a difficult period financially for
families who save for their annual break? Especially when customers then
find out their money was not safe and, in some instances, they are left high
Co-operative Travel
and dry without recompense from anyone?
boss Mike Greenacre Quite a difference to having your money in a bank that is now protected
(left) has written a
by the government! Isn’t that ironic? The government is prepared to
hard-hitting open
protect people’s bank savings but when it comes to protecting our customers’
investment in their future holiday plans, there still remains no
letter to operators,
comprehensive industry-wide financial protection scheme. So when a
airlines, the government
customer gives us their money in May for a holiday that may not be taken
and the CAA in the wake of
for 12 months, that money, in many cases, is at risk.
the demise of XL and the
What concerns me is that, as an industry, we are ineffective at persuading
government to act on these issues. I find it embarrassing as an Abta board
emergence of start-up airlines.
director that we have been unable to lobby government to move quickly, and
In it, he says he has been
to date, the CAA appears to have a similar track record. I will keep lobbying
embarrassed by the industry’s
hard on this matter and I hope others will too.
“weak and ineffective”
I also want to clarify my position regarding new start-up airlines. If we
are to bolster the trade’s image, damaged this year by so many failures,
lobbying of parliament for an
then I find it reckless that at the first sign of a new airline publicising itself,
industry-wide comprehensive
trade buyers are instantly schmoozing to the overtures of its sales directors!
financial protection scheme.
What would we all have done if this new start-up had not emerged? The
He also voices his concern that
established airlines can cover most of the flying left vacant by the demise of
XL if you just give them a moment.
travel is losing its credibility.
Any new start-up airline will be heavily dependent on the support it gets
And he expresses his fear that
from smaller tour operators wanting maybe 10 or 20-seat allocations. The
investing customers’ money in
problem is that if the larger airlines, with their reduced capacities, stop
start-up airlines could damage
selling seats to these small operators, then those operators will have little
choice but to do business with anyone who is replacing capacity to destina-
the industry’s image further.
tions where they make their money – and that includes new start-ups.
Read his letter in full here.
I would therefore implore the likes of Tui, Thomas Cook and Monarch, to
name but a few, not to restrict smaller operators from taking seat allocations
at sensible prices, bearing in mind the current reduction in oil prices.
■ Do you agree with Mike
This would help agents, including their own retail chains, and
Greenacre’s views? Email
consumers, by replacing the perceived capacity void left by XL
lhuxley@ttglive.com
and significantly reducing the risk.
Mike Greenacre
General manager, The Co-operative Travel Group
Global Travel signs deal with Kiss Flights
good flight-only player. It was tragic about XL but
that’s now in the past and in a challenging market
THE GLOBAL Travel Group has signed a deal with rector of XL’s seat-only arm, Freedom Flights. you need to be concentrating on the future.”
new start-up seat-only operator Kiss Flights. Global group commercial director Dave Kiss Flights sales and marketing director Bob
Kiss will be the preferred supplier for Global, Clayton said he was delighted to be working with Taylor said the commercial agreement with
the group’s Independent Options members and the “old Freedom team”. Global meant all the group’s members would be
the Harvey World Travel agencies. “This team are one of the most experienced in offered “unrivalled levels of service along with a
Kiss is led by Paul Moss, former managing di- the business and the independent sector needs a quality product at competitive prices”.
24.10.2008 05
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