Travellers are facing another extra fee on their tickets – a levy of up to 50p – for a fund to repatriate travellers if their carrier goes bust.
The Airline Insolvency Review was set up by the Department for Transport (DfT) after the collapse of Monarch in October 2017 to look at ways of protecting passengers in future.
The review, chaired by Peter Bucks, recommends a “Flight Protection Scheme” to foot the bill in future collapses.
All airlines flying to the UK, British or otherwise, would be required to put in place financial protection that would pay for travellers to be brought home were they go out of business. Every passenger buying a plane ticket in the UK would pay a levy.
The fund would cover only people who booked a return ticket from the UK whose airline fails while they are away.
Passengers who had yet to travel would not be covered, and would be expected to claim the value of the ticket back from the credit-card provider, insurance company or ATOL cover.
The move has been welcomed by travel agents and tour operators, but criticised by airlines.
John de Vial, Director of Financial Protection at ABTA – The Travel Association said: “It is good to see that the Review has recognised that there is a gap in consumer protection when an airline goes out of business.
“ABTA has highlighted for quite some time that the current system is confusing and inconsistent for both customers and travel businesses. The Review is important in terms of examining the options for addressing this gap and ABTA will be looking at the recommendations closely in order to assess how they could work in practice and discussing these with our Members.”
British Airways’ parent company, IAG, said: “Airline passengers should not be charged a levy to bail out other carriers when they go bust.”
Dale Keller, representing airlines flying to the UK, said: “The real costs of collecting and administering the proposed 50p per passenger are likely to be significantly greater.
“The Airline Insolvency Report does not go into the complexity of how such a levy should be collected only on UK originating return journeys, or how the fund would be administered.”
The review will be considered as part of the government’s strategy for aviation to 2050.
