The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
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a 49 per cent stake to a private equity company, while shares in loss-making Norwegian tumbled when it announced a £270 million cash call.
While these are tough times for the European airline industry, the problem this week has been for the thousands of Flybmi passengers who were left stranded abroad, and many more whose holiday plans have been thrown into confusion. A black day for them, while for me it all felt like groundhog day. I have been reporting on airline collapses for 30 years, and the story is always the same. Chaos and unexpected expenses for many of those stranded, plus rank confusion about what their rights are and whether they are entitled to a refund or repatriation. This is followed by a completely inadequate response from the Government, promising better protection arrangements that never quite materialise.
Each case is different. Monarch was particularly complex because many passengers were booked as part of a package holiday and had much better protection than others who paid for their flights independently. In the end the situation was so complex, the Civil Aviation Authority flew everyone
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home no matter what their status.
Passengers with Flybmi will not benefit from an emergency repatriation programme. Most will have booked and paid with a credit card and are likely to get their original fare refunded because they can claim it from the card issuer. But they will only get back the money they paid for the original fare – it will not help them get home if they are stranded and new flights may well cost significantly more that the original fare. The same is true for those who have not yet travelled – they may get their fare back, but new flights are likely to be more than they originally budgeted for.
And those who feel inclined to cancel the whole trip need to be careful – they may still be liable for other parts of their holiday. For example, if you have booked a hotel separately from your flights, and you do not travel, you are probably legally obliged to honour that booking. The same goes if you have booked a villa or other type of accommodation. Even if your travel insurance policy covers the loss of scheduled flights (and most do not), very few cover other associated losses such as this.
In short, it is a mess. Which is why Telegraph Travel has long been calling for better protection – one of the main strands of our Safer, Fairer, Better campaign. There are some signs of progress. In the wake of the Monarch collapse the Government did finally announce a review. But, more than a year later, it has yet to report. Jesse Norman, minister at the Department of Transport, said last November that publication is expected “in the coming months”. Then the department will consider the recommendations and take steps “to ensure a strong level of protection for consumers in the event of airline failure, with minimal impact to the taxpayer”. Personally, I am living more in hope than expectation.
SOPHIE BUTLER
The story is the same: turmoil and expense for those stranded plus confusion over their rights
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