The European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) today responded to ABTA`s lobbying to extend ATOL bonding regulations to scheduled airlines…
The European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) today responded to ABTA`s lobbying to extend ATOL bonding regulations to scheduled airlines following the collapse of EUJet. Regulations in the UK currently require holiday packages to fall under the ATOL bonding scheme which compensates passengers in the event of a company failure but this scheme does not cover passengers travelling on a flight only basis. EasyJet, Flybe and Monarch have taken the voluntary action to repatriate stranded EUJet passengers.
Commenting on the latest lobbying efforts by ABTA, the Secretary General of ELFAA, Jan Skeels said: Airline collapses are rare however following the unfortunate demise of EUJet, airlines have shown that they already practice responsible self-regulation by acting as one body in order to repatriate passengers and effectively provide the same protection offered by ATOL bonding. In addition, as part of the booking process, our airlines offer passengers the choice of protecting themselves through the purchase of insurance cover. As further back up, the high percentage of bookings made over the internet using credit cards are already protected by the Credit Card Act.
We have been opposed to the introduction of ATOL bonding on flight only purchases for some time and the voluntary action taken over the EUJet collapse simply re-enforces our views. UK airlines are already acting responsibly to protect passengers from being inconvenienced through airline failure. To further regulate these airlines would cause unnecessary red tape and associated costs which would ultimately have to be met by the consumer.
ELFAA Members include: Air Berlin, flybe, Hapag-Lloyd Express, Norwegian, Ryanair, Sky Europe, Sterling, Sverige Flyg, Transavia and wizzair.
Low fares services in Europe currently account for approximately 24% of scheduled air services with ELFAA members carrying approximately 60 million passengers to over 200 destinations.
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