Airlines are delaying customers’ refunds, say tour operators

A NUMBER of Britain’s biggest holiday firms are still awaiting money from airlines to refund customers four months after the UK’s lockdown was announced.

Up to £7billion could be owed for cancelled trips, but with very little booking revenue, industry bodies including Abta, say firms would face bankruptcy if they paid out right away.

Under EU regulations, after a flight is cancelled, airlines are obligated to process a refund within seven days, allowing holiday firms to refund customers within 14 days, the time frame in the Package Travel Regulations.

On the Beach, a Manchester-based agency floated on the London Stock Exchange with a value of £240million, this week emailed some customers to apologise for not returning their money on time, blaming airlines for slow repayment.

Which? found that all of the UK’s biggest airlines are systematically breaking the law by denying timely refunds for travel cancelled during the pandemic. Most have offered vouchers or credit notes, but customers have complained that they want their money returned.

An On the Beach spokesman told The Sunday Tele

graph it had been able to refund the majority of customers’ hotel and transfer money as it was kept in a regulated trust account.

However, they accused some airlines of hanging on to flight payments, leaving travel companies unable to refund customers immediately. “As soon as we have the money back from the airlines, it will be passed straight back to our customers in cash,” they added.

It comes as Tui, Europe’s largest tour operator, is set to cancel around 96 per cent of its UK holiday programme for July and at least 50 per cent of August departures.

From July 11, Tui will resume trips from Manchester, Gatwick and Birmingham airports to eight destinations in Spain and Greece – only around 4 per cent of its total capacity for July, meaning thousands of holidaymakers will lose their holidays.

Tui typically carries 74,000 passengers a day during summer; but in July as few as 400 passengers a day will travel. By August, it hopes to run 50 per cent of its trips to 19 destinations from five UK airports.