What is the purpose of an airport regulator?
To make money? To manage the interests of our airports? Or the airlines? To control over-zealous ideas and practices? To make sure passengers fly safely?
I sometimes wonder.
Yesterday the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, announced that he was giving additional powers to the Civil Aviation Authority. (CAA) But this time the power is to look out for the passenger. Hammond said, “…the CAA’s primary duty will be to promote the interests of existing and future passengers.”

With decent weather over much of our countries last weekend it looked as though things were set fare for a while. In the space of one week, we have had winds and heavy rain and then, to top it off, Goldtrail Holidays (which also used the name Sunmar) went bust yesterday evening leaving 16,000 abroad. Now it also seems that there may be a strike at all BAA airports (Heathrow, Stanstead, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen) during August.
CD-Traveller has frequently argued for wider consumer protection. In the wake of Globespan in 2009 and XL in 2008 (see CD-Traveller 14 Sept, 26 Nov, 17 Dec 2009), you might have hoped or expected that such high profile events might have stimulated some change. No, the EU prepared a document and sent it for consultation. The then government said it was an EU issue and we are no further forward. Yet we have had 11 cases of companies going bust this year.

Regular readers can stop reading right now if they don’t want to hear me talk again about providing an adequate safety net for passengers outside the ATOL bonding scheme.

As you probably all know by now, those passengers who bought a package holiday under the Globespan name are probably protected under the ATOL system. Those of you who bought just a flight with a credit card (not a debit card)and paid more than £100 may be able to claim a refund from the credit card providers. The rest of you, I’m afraid, will probably be out of pocket. And for those of you who are covered then you still have the hassle and probable expense of rebooking with another carrier if there is availability. To check your position, see www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1985&pagetype=90.

The collapse of the Globespan group will hit Scotland particularly badly.

Starting today, the EU will consult with the travel industry over the next 8 weeks before coming up with new proposals on giving greater protection to travellers.

From the website:

“The CAA is the UK’s independent specialist aviation regulator. Its activities include economic regulation, airspace policy, safety regulation and consumer protection.”

As the Summer holidays near, the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) has taken the opportunity of issueing revised guidelines on what you can and cannot take on an aircraft.If you book through a tour operator, they will have a copy of the leaflet that you can request.On the CAA website you can download a copy or [...]

When you see a press report about Ryanair, it usually makes good reading. Their Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary, is not known for bland language; some is more colourful than Gordon Ramsay’s so the announcement of his third quarter accounts is uasually not as boring as some that travel companies issue. Ryanair calls for the removal [...]