ABTA chief Mark Tanzer has said that the government department that is responsible for PTRs has proved unwilling up to now to move away from Europe legislations.
ABTA are urging the government to allow travel companies to offer credit notes in lieu of refunds temporarily in a bid to save business cash flow for those already struggling during these unprecedented times and in a climate where the travel industry has been hit most harshly.
Tanzer said that ABTA’s proposal would maintain the principles of the PTRs but gives businesses loner to pay.
ABTA’s campaign is for a temporary change in the law that will allow for protested credit notes to be issued in the place of cash refunds immediately which can be exchanged for a full refund later. Despite several EU countries making amendments to relax their laws given the current climate, the UK government still has not budged on the issue.
Mark Tanzer commented: “Whatever the regulations were designed for, they weren’t designed for this situation.
“By the time people put in claims to ATOL; or ABTA, it will take just as long as deferred credit arrangements,”
“The CAA is still dealing with claims from Thomas Cook in September. If you have a large-scale wipeout or number of failures in the travel sector, it’s going to take consumers a long time to get their money back through that route.
“It’s much better we keep companies alive in the meantime, ready for when the recovery comes.”
Mark Tanzer mentioned that insight of the governments lack of action so far, the next hurdle is the issue of different companies being able to make cash refunds at different times in the future and the issue of how long credit notes will be protected under each individual companies bonding arrangements.
