XL CAA announces end of its largest ever repatriation operation
Jim
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) today announced that the final
repatriation charter flights for holidaymakers affected by the failure of
the XL Leisure Group have arrived back in the UK, and said that the focus
is now on working to deal with refund claims from people with pre-booked
ATOL-protected XL holidays.
A small number of ATOL-protected XL tour operator customers are still
abroad on extended trips. The CAA will continue to work with UK tour
operators abroad and the Foreign Office to ensure that information is
available about what people still abroad should do about flights home and,
where appropriate, obtaining a refund from the CAA. There will be no
further chartered repatriation flights operating, so any customers who
booked direct with XL Airways and are not ATOL protected will now have to
make their own arrangements to return to the UK.
During the 17 days since XL’s collapse on 12 September, the CAA has
arranged 222 flights from 40 destinations, returning an estimated 83,000
holidaymakers, both ATOL-protected XLLG passengers and the customers of
other ATOL-protected tour operators that shared XL flights, and XL Airways
passengers who will have to pay a reasonable fee for their carriage. As
well as organising flights, the CAA and travel industry arranged transport
by ferries, coaches, trains and taxis to bring people home, as well as
additional accommodation.
Richard Jackson, CAA Director of Consumer Protection, said: “The task of
repatriating XL customers at the end of their holidays is now by and large
completed. We are pleased that overall these arrangements have worked well
and once again I want to extend my thanks to our colleagues in the travel
industry and the overseas representatives of Thomson/First Choice, Thomas
Cook and Virgin Holidays, whose hard work ensured the smoothest possible
operation.
“We recognise the need to learn from our experiences and we will be
reviewing our response so far to the XL failure to ensure that any relevant
lessons are learned to ensure that the CAA continues to offer customers
affected by failures such as this one the best level of service. We now ask
claimants to bear with us and understand we are working as swiftly as
possible to process refund claims.”
The preliminary work necessary to process the refunds from over 200,000
customers who have pre-booked holidays with XL has already started, but
with an estimated 70,000 claims expected to be received the refund process
will take longer than for smaller failures. People who have already made a
claim will be contacted shortly with a claim reference. Those yet to claim
should contact their travel agent about whether they can book alternative
holiday arrangements and assign their claim. Otherwise, they can download a
claim form from the ATOL website: www.atol.org.uk.
For further information, journalists should contact the CAA Press Office
on: 0207 453 6030.
Notes to Editors:
The CAA has organised flights from Alicante, Malaga (Spain); Palma
(Majorca); Athens, Chania, Corfu, Heraklion, Kalamata, Kavala, Kefalonia,
Kos, Lesbos, Mykonos, Preveza, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos, Zante
(Greece); Bodrum, Dalaman (Turkey); Cagliari (Sardinia); Faro (Portugal);
Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt); Bridgetown (Barbados); Antigua, Grenada,
St Kitts, St Lucia, Tobago (Caribbean); Larnaca, Paphos (Cyprus); Orlando,
Sanford (Florida); Arrecife (Lanzarote); Fuerteventura, Las Palmas,
Tenerife (Canaries); Mahon (Minorca).
Arrival airports in the UK were Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, East
Midlands, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and
Newcastle.
ATOL (short for Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing) is managed by the CAA and
gives comprehensive protection from losing money or being stranded abroad
to 26 million people in the UK who buy air holidays and flights from tour
operators each year. It is by far the largest travel protection scheme in
the UK, and the only one for flights and air holidays sold by tour
operators.
All tour operators selling flights and air holidays must hold a licence
from the CAA. If a licence holder fails, the CAA is responsible for
ensuring customers are either repatriated to the UK or receive a refund of
payments made.
Repatriation costs and refunds are met by the Air Travel Trust Fund, the
funds of which come from a £1 per person contribution, called the ATOL
Protection Contribution, each licence holder is required to make when it
accepts a booking under its ATOL. In some circumstances a licence holder
will have also provided a bond, which is used in the first instance to
protect customers.
In the year to March 2008, ATOL enabled over 2,000 customers of failed tour
operators to complete their holidays and return to the UK and 21,000
received a refund of advance payments. For the year, total expenditure on
repatriations and refunds was £7.5 million.
Further information about ATOL is available on the ATOL website at
www.atol.org.uk.
The CAA is the UK's specialist aviation regulator. Its activities include:
making sure that the aviation industry meets the highest technical and
operational safety standards; preventing holidaymakers from being stranded
abroad or losing money because of tour operator insolvency; planning and
regulating all UK airspace; and regulating airports, air traffic services
and airlines and providing advice on aviation policy from an economic
standpoint.