Refunds drive travel industry to the brink

HOLIDAYMAKERS could be left short of refunds if their trips are cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, a travel agent has warned.

Although EU law ensures passengers whose flights have been cancelled are entitled to a refund or a change of date, Linda Jones, owner of the Travel Boutique in Bray, Co. Wicklow, says the rules were not designed for mass cancellations.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio yesterday, Ms Jones said: ‘The rules are there but they certainly weren’t invented for situations like this. All the airlines can do is offer credit notes and try and change bookings for people where possible.’

She said that the public ‘are just going to have to be very patient with all of the agents around the country because we’ve paid the money out on their behalf’.

Ms Jones continued: ‘We work on small margins and commissions and we have no idea when we’re ever going to receive refunds back. We just cannot refund every single penny. We have to be paid for our work, we’ve done bookings, we’re processing the refunds, so it’s really unlikely people are going to get full amounts back and it could take several months.’

Ms Jones fears her own business, which has been operating since 2009 and employs five people, could go under because of the mass cancellations and the demand for refunds. She said: ‘I don’t think it could be any worse than what it is. One minute you have a profitable trading company and everything’s perfect, and in the space of two, three weeks our industry is on its knees.

‘We are in the worst situation. Every single cruise ship is grounded for the next few months, every airline is grounded, every border is shut.

‘There’s nowhere safe on this earth that we could send anybody on holiday at the moment.’

Ms Jones said ‘every single booking that we have done for the last year is gone’, adding: ‘We just have to write it off. We cannot as an industry see anybody getting to travel anywhere this summer.

‘It’s not looking like it’s going to be a possibility this year.

‘So not only do we not have the sales for this year, we’ve lost all of our sales from last year as well – we’re on our knees.’

Even if travel opens up again and flights return to normal by September, Ms Jones fears her business will not survive, she told RTÉ’s Today With Seán O’Rourke show yesterday.

‘We just had to write off everything for March, April, we’re now writing off May, June. We honestly don’t know when to tell people that it’s going to be fine to travel again,’ she said.

Customers are looking for refunds from cancelled breaks, but Ms Jones said: ‘All of our suppliers cannot give refunds.

‘There is just not enough liquidity there with the cruise companies, the tour operators, the airlines; they’ll just go bust.

‘No matter how much I borrow, I don’t know if it’s going to be enough.

‘Do you borrow €100,000? €200,000? How much do you borrow to keep your business going?

‘This is a crisis for our industry.’

‘There’s nowhere safe to send people’