From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
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From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
You can see the Full Story: Click Here
From our friends over at the : Irishexaminer.com
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EU airline passenger rights regulations are not fully protecting consumers and need reform, the head of leading industry representative group the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said.
Addressing an industry conference in Qatar on the need for "smarter regulation", IATA director general and chief executive Alexandre de Juniac slammed the EU-261 flight compensation regulation as costly and ineffective.
"It is a confusing, poorly-worded regulation that is adding cost to the European industry. Plus, it is not doing its best at protecting consumers," he said.
Mr de Juniac, a former chief executive of Air France-KLM, added: "Even the European Commission sees the shortcomings of this regulation and has proposed important reforms.
"But these have been held hostage for years as a result of the implications of the Gibraltar dispute between the UK and Spain."
It is absurd that a dispute dating from the early 1700s—over two centuries before the first airline took flight—is holding up reform of an airline regulation. But that is the reality.
Mr de Juniac also took aim at some countries adopting their own passenger compensation rules despite agreeing to different IATA guidelines.
"Even though governments signed up to these principles, many persist in going it on their own. And, too often, they do so in a knee-jerk respsonse to an incident."
He also said Brexit must not hinder the industry.
"Irrespective of the political relationship between the UK and Europe we see growing demand...for connectivity between the two. Brexit cannot be allowed to undermine that demand."
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Struggling airline Flybe has confirmed that its biggest shareholder, Hosking Partners, has moved to eject chairman Simon Laffin and ordered a probe into its takeover.
The airline said on Monday that the investor has requested the company convene a general meeting to consider resolutions to replace Mr Laffin with Eric Kohn.
Flybe - which is being taken over by Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and investment firm Cyrus Capital Partners - said in a stock market update that Hosking also wants Mr Kohn to investigate the sale process.
Hosking objects to the deal, which will see Flybe sold for 1p a share.
Shares in Flybe jumped over 31% in morning trade to 4.5p.
But the airline said it has "full confidence" in Mr Laffin and believes that "any independent scrutiny of its conduct will support the board's decision-making".
It said: "The board reaffirms that it has acted at all times in the interests of its shareholders and all its stakeholders, through an extremely difficult and challenging period.
The board continues to have full confidence in its chairman, Simon Laffin, and believes that any independent scrutiny of its conduct will support the board's decision-making.
Under the terms of the deal, the buyers - known collectively as the Connect Airways consortium - will pay £2.8 million (€3.2m) to take control of the main trading company Flybe and the online arm Flybe.com in a deal set to complete by February 22, while later concluding the purchase of the wider holding company for 1p a share.
However, Hosking has expressed concerns that Flybe allowed a false market to develop by failing to notify the City of its financial position quickly enough.
Flybe confirmed on Thursday that shareholders will not be able to vote on the initial disposal of the main trading assets of the airline, but only the 1p-a-share sale of the remaining holding company.
Under the takeover plans, the airline will be combined with Stobart Air in a joint venture.
Cyrus will own 40% of the new company, while Virgin and Stobart will take 30% apiece.
PA
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The scheme established to compensate holiday-goers when service providers go bust has less than half the funding on hand that was required to cover the collapse of a tour operator two years ago.
Officials at two Government departments have remained tight-lipped as to what plans - if any - are in place to compensate customers should another large travel agent go bust and exhaust the funding in place to protect international travellers.
The 2017 accounts for the Travellers’ Protection Fund were submitted to the Dáil recently, and they showed that its finances took a hit of almost €3.5m - or nearly 70% of the entire fund - in 2016.
This was almost entirely down to the collapse of lowcostholidays, which saw holiday-goers claim €3.3m in compensation for canceled vacations, with another €300,000 spent by the Fund on the cost of administering the payouts.
The fund is financed by payments from the travel industry and administered by the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR), which is responsible for the licencing of the travel trade.
The CAR submitted the fund’s 2017 accounts to the Dáil last month. It revealed that the balance available in the fund at the end of December 31, 2017 was €1,586,480 - less than half of what was needed to pay lowcostholidays customers when it went out of business.
The Irish Examiner asked the CAR, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS), and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) what would happen if another large operator were to collapse and spark claims that would exceed the amount remaining in the Travellers’ Protection Fund.
A spokesperson for CAR pointed to legislation which states that in such an event, customers would be paid a proportionate sum based on the cost of their holiday - but not the whole amount.
We asked both DPER and DTTAS if the Government would consider reimbursing the fund if it were the case that holidaymakers were to lose out.
A DTTAS spokesperson replied: “The monies of the fund are managed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, any proposals to reimburse the fund would be subject to the approval of the Minister for Finance."
However, DTTAS would not say if it has a policy in place to seek such an approval to pay into the fund. DPER said it legally cannot pay into the fund, but can only approve such a proposal from DTTAS should it arise.
“The monies of the fund are managed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, any proposals to reimburse the fund would be developed by CAR and DTTAS and would also be subject to the approval of the Minister for PER under the relevant legislation.
"There is no legal mechanism at present for DPER to contribute to the TPF under the relevant legislation, the Transport (Tour Operators and Travel Agents) Act 1982. Such a provision may be considered by CAR and DTTAS in the context of new policy developments."
Both Departments said DTTAS and CAR “are cognisant of the need to bring forward new travel consumer protection measures in light of a number of factors”.
“The CAR has conducted extensive consultations on both the requirements of the 2nd EU Package Travel Directive and also the future of travel trade bonding and the TPF. The DTTAS and CAR are collaborating on the development of policy options to underpin an efficient travel trade sector and to ensure that consumers continue to be protected into the future,” they said.
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