Furlough announcement welcomed by ABTA, clear strategy required

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

   The Chancellor’s move to extend and adapt the furlough scheme has been welcomed by the Travel Association but it will also be needing urgent measures to protect the industry and hundreds of thousands of jobs it supports.

 In order to support travel agents and tour operators, ABTA’S Chief Executive gave evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee highlighting the need for furloughing rules to be reviewed.

 It asks for the travel businesses to have a degree of flexibility and allow either a part-time return to work or some tasks to be undertaken without the loss of all salary support.

  ABTA has called for the Government to take action through its ‘Save Future Travel’ campaign  along with the extension of the furlough scheme. A wider strategy is urgently needed by the government to providing guidance and clarity on refunds for package holidays, including confirming clearly and publicly what the CAA has stated privately, that Refund Credit Notes covering ATOL package holidays with flights are financially protected.
Working with the ABI and insurers, to ensure adequate travel insurance cover is available to customers for when FCO travel restrictions start to be lifted.

Ensuring any quarantine measures that are proposed are part of a wider strategy, including consideration of FCO travel advice. Any measures should be based on health and scientific advice and be proportionate, targeted and limited only to what is necessary to protect public health.

Mark Tanzer, ABTA’s Chief Executive, said that they have been actively lobbying the Government to extend the furlough scheme to help prevent mass job losses impacting the industry at the end of June, so today’s announcement will be welcome news to the many travel agents and operators who are having to make incredibly difficult decisions about people’s jobs during this crisis.

Travel business and their customers still need urgent intervention and guidance in a number of other important areas.  They need the Government to develop and set out a wider strategy for supporting the travel industry and its customers through this crisis that covers areas including refunds and potential travel restrictions.

 More than 25,000 colleagues and supporters from across the country have emailed their local MP calling for Government intervention to help the travel industry since the launch of ABTA’s ‘Save Future Travel’ campaign.

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