Speaking at ABTA’s Travel Matters conference, Civil Aviation Authority Chief Executive Richard Moriarty said he would be taking a ‘light touch approach’ to compliance over the summer.
While the CAA will expect all companies to start working on implementing the new regulations immediately, he said its enforcement activities would take into account the limited time they had had to prepare.
The Government only released final details of the Package Travel Directive on June 11, less than three weeks before the date of implementation.
“We understand that some changes, particularly IT changes, can take time to implement so if the work is in hand, has a timetabled date for completion, then we’re unlikely to take action straight away in the first three months,” he said.
However, the CAA will take a firm line with companies that failed to start making plans as soon as the details of the Pacakge Travel Directive were announced. “If we rock up at the end of the summer and people say ‘Richard, what’s this all about’ that is a very different proposition,” he added.
While Linked Travel Arrangements have been left out of the ATOL regime, Richard said the CAA would be keeping a close eye on their development ‘given the possibility of confusion among consumers about what is protected and what is not protected’.
He said there was a danger that a consumer buying a bundle of separate products from one seller might believe they had bought a unitary holiday ‘and be disappointed if they find that seller walking away from problems that the consumer expected them to resolve’.
He added: “We will keep watching the market, assessing how LTAs are working for consumers, and consider appropriate policy responses if necessary.”
