CD Traveller » CAA

Air passenger advice

Editor — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:22:33 +0000

Early last year, responsibility for consumer complaints passed from the old Air Passenger Users Council (AUC) to the CAA – Civil Aviation Authority. Last week they announced a more user-friendly website that gives the answers to most questions you should have when you fly including what to do if there is a problem.
They suggest that you check it before you book.
Basically there are six sections that lead from the home page plus a further one on the environment.. The first deals with the ATOL bonding scheme and takes you to the ATOL website where you can check whether a tour operator is bonded. The second takes you through the various things you should do before and after you’ve booked to make sure you have the right documentation, the necessary health information for the country concerned and what you can and cannot take with you on the plane. The third deals with what to expect at the airport
When you are on the flight the fourth deals with seating, safety and what happens if you have a disruptive passenger. Screaming at the passenger that he has reclined his seat too far is not one of the suggestions made! But if problems occur and can’t be resolved during the trip it suggests in the fifth section what you should do next. The sixth covers airline safety and what the requirements are
The website is to be found by clicking here or pasting www.caa.co.uk/passengers into your browser.

Heathrow pays a heavy penalty for queues

Editor — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:51:40 +0000

Heathrow airport has been ordered to pay a£500,000 penalty after an investigation revealed passenger queuing times at security checkpoints were longer than the London airport previously reported.

We have no problem with Heathrow paying a penalty but it’s to whom the penalty was paid that has caused us to raise any eyebrow.

The UK’s largest airport was forced to pay the penalty to… the airlines! What about the passengers – the long suffering likes of you and me who were, after all, the ones who had to endure the inconvenience of queuing for aeons, following a long flight?

We applaud the Civil Aviation Authority’s determination to tighten up the queue monitoring procedures at Heathrow. However surely it’s the passengers, and not the airlines, that Heathrow should be apologising to?

Pot and Kettle

adrian — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 06:29:25 +0000

My apologies. This story is two-weeks old but I missed it. Mea culpa. A reader spotted a press release on the Ryanair website and it really is just too good not to share with you.
Ryanair has objected to how Gatwick Airport has billed its fees and therefore it complained to the CAA. They have ruled that the airport used discriminatory charging for check-in facilities in that all airlines are charged for check-in yet the majority of Ryanair passengers check-in online. Fair enough. Why should the airline, or in this case we passengers, be charged for a service it doesn’t use and will it mean that Ryanair will reduce its fees?
But then comes the high point.
Ryanair “welcomed” the fact that the airports charges “were not transparent” and noted that the airport had been given until April 2012 to “implement transparent and non-discriminatory charges.” Now Ryanair complaining about transparency is rich. It took a long time for it to agree to revamp its website to make it appear more transparent. It doesn’t explain why it charges (it’s so-called administration fee) per passenger for credit charge bookings despite having only to pay a much smaller single transaction amount to the credit card companies. It doesn’t explain why it charges €100 for a name change when it must cost nothing like that to handle.
It charges a EU261 levy of £2 to handle any compensation claims. Does this mean that if I don’t claim compensation during the year, I will have this refunded because that’s what transparency means? According to Ryanair if a service isn’t used, it should be paid for. So I can safely look forward to getting my money back. Or will they let me have my £2 back but charge me a £10 administration fee to have it returned?
And they complain about Gatwick. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Confusion over Volcanic Ash

adrian — Tue, 24 May 2011 09:52:51 +0000

Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano last year, Iceland (Image Courtesy NASA Earth Observatory)

It seemed quite simple when I got up this morning. Flights into Scottish airports would be disrupted due to the ash cloud emanating from the Icelandic volcano we can pronounce, Grimsvotn, and spread southwards.
Except that isn’t what’s happening. Some airlines are flying and some have been advised (“ordered” seems to be the real meaning of the word for Ryanair by the IAA – Irish Aviation Authority) not to. In the UK the CAA has said airlines can decide for theselves but if they fly, they must seek their approval. So for the passenger this is a mess. One easy to understand policy would be better than umpteen different ideas. Flybe has had a flight from Birmingham to Glasgow land at Glasgow this morning and a flight to Dalaman in Turkey took off from Edinburgh just before 10.15.
The disruption today will be compounded by how airlines and airports communicate with their passengers. I can already see the media dragging out stories from people who will say “Nobody is telling us what is going on.” Airlines might have learnt from last time but what’s the betting they haven’t?
At Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness airports, flights through the day are still scheduled so it looks as though delays and cancellations are likely to come at the last moment making it doubly inconvenient for passengers. Uncomfortable waits at the airport when they could have stayed at home and uncomfortable in not being able to work out what is going on.
One reason airlines are going to be reluctant to cancel is because they have a liability under EU law – the snappily named EU261/04 – to provide compensation and refunds. If a flight is delayed rather cancelled then a lower amount of compensation is payable.
Airlines complain bitterly that they should not be responsible for an act of God, only for those things that they can control. The EU is going to revisit the rules but not yet. For this eruption, provided you can afford to hang around, the airlines will look after you. But if you need to get on and use other means of transport, much of it – if not all – will be at your expense as I found last year when I needed to get from Glasgow to London (twice!) and I ended up buying expensive train tickets.
UPDATE:
Just after 11am Ryanair called on the authorities to re-open air space saying that a test flight through Scottish airspace found no evidence of ash. Well of course it wouldn’t. The ash is now forecast to arrive this aftrenoon. But that does mean airspace could have been open this morning. The interesting thing is that the Irish Aviation Authority seems able to order Ryanair (and other Irish airlines) but the CAA only advises. Using language only this airline uses, it says that the UK’s Met Office forecasts are “totally unreliable.”
UPDATE: 14.45
This disruption is beginning to become farcical with the UK Transport Secretary saying that the Ryanair flight didn’t fly through the ash and didn’t carry the “right” measuring instruments. Another Ryanair flight has taken off from Prestwick to fly through the ash and IATA says that the one plane that the CAA has for monitoring the situation can’t fly. Talk about children throwing their toys about! Aberdeen Airport has re-opened and Ryanair has sought the permission of the IAA to fly this afternoon
UPDATE 16.00
Ryanair has been refused permission by the IAA to fly to Scotland fly and it looks as though there will be few flights to and from Scotland for the rest of the day. There’s a strange one at Cardiff where a flybe Paris flight has been cancelled both (incoming and outgoing) supposedly due to the ash. It looks as though there is less ash being emitted and things may be improving. The BBC website has a man from Orkney saying there is ash on the cars at Lerwick. There are reports that flights to and from some German, Danish and Norwegian airports might be affected tomorrow.
UPDATE 25th May, 07.15
Much of UK and Irish airspace is getting back to normal. There will be delays today but nearly all flights should get away. Hamburg and Bremen airports are closed in northern Germany and there is a chance that airports in Berlin and Hanover may close as well later in the day. The Daily Express and the Daily Mail note that it is half term next week and there could be more problems then but, at the moment, that seems scaremongering. There seems to be lots of criticism of David O’Leary at Ryanair for suggesting he knows more about safe flying than the authorities.

Merricks and Light on the Horizon

adrian — Sun, 15 May 2011 08:21:27 +0000

For longer than I care to remember, CD-Traveller has covered complaints, suggestions, conversations and proposals about reform the bonding system we have in place to help those who, through no fault of their own, are left in the wet and sticky when their tour operator or holiday company goes bust. The help you receive depends on how your package was booked and you may not even be aware of how the supplier or travel agent has put it together.
Now the CAA (who administer the ATOL scheme) has published the results of an independent review but it covers only claims handling. The reform proposals are not due to appear until much later in the year when some of the recommendations from this report will be included. The consultation period ended in early August last year. It has taken 9 months to give birth to just a 20 page document with an additional 31 pages of appendices! Am I being churlish especially as the author, Walter Merricks, admits the delay saying it was due to three more collapses last summer (Goldtrail, Sun4U and Flight Options/Kiss) and awaiting the government’s consultation on ATOL reform?
Yes I am because this report has deadlines and all should be in place for the start of the summer season next year.
Let’s skip to the nitty gritty. Merricks says that the legal framework of the ATOL scheme is outdated, some travel firms produce a poor standard of documents and, the system can’t handle the sheer volume of complaints that arose over the biggest collapse, XL and strict payment policies seem to exacerbate the situation. That payment to XL customers took over 3 months to settle in some cases, he suggests is wrong.
There are two features I would highlight. He suggests copying the insurance industry and paying out first and then seeking repayment from other parties later and that, if your company goes bust, the money you have paid could be used by a travel agent to buy another holiday, the travel agent being secure in the knowledge that the money would come from the bonding scheme.
The report comes just after a Travelsupermarket.com survey came out showing that only 14% of the 2,000 responders said that travel protection was important. That’s because we haven’t had a crash for a few months. Just because the great British public responders to this survey have forgotten the problems, the authorities shouldn’t. Anything to speed up and introduce wider protection to all travellers should be supported.

Airline Punctuality

adrian — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:36:11 +0000

bmi A320

There are lots of websites that will give snapshots of what happens based on a few thousand examples. When it comes to assessing how punctual airlines were last year we have the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) figures as analysed by www.flightontime.info. In this instance we are talking of thousands if not tens of thousands or in the case of BA, nearly a quarter of a million flights. So the results are solid. What must be remembered about the figures for 2010 was that airline punctuality was disrupted by snow and volcanic ash. Secondly airports which are close to capacity like Heathrow and Gatwick, are more likely to have delays which are not of an airlines’ making.

Having said that, the figures then serve as a guide to how bad some airlines became in 2010. The most punctual airline was bmi regional followed by Eastern Airlines. And the worst was Jet 2. Of the popular airlines, KLM was 5th, bmi British Midland was 10th, flybe 13th and Ryanair 15th. Aer Lingus was 16th, Air France, 17th and BA, 20th. easyJet was 31st and Virgin Atlantic 33rd.
Knowing which airline was not that punctual might make you decide to use a more on-time aircraft in the future but is the difference in punctuality that much? The average delay across the whole of 2010 was just 7.1 minutes for bmi regional. For Jet 2 it was 35.5 minutes.

There aren’t comparable figures for the charter airlines but from April to October last year. Thomson Airways was delayed on average 14.1 minutes, Monarch was 29.4, Thomas Cook was 34.92 and Viking 52.22 minutes. At individual airports, bmi regional was the most punctual at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester, the only airline to have captured more than one first place. At Heathrow it was KLM (which was also the runner up at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle) and at Gatwick, Air Southwest. At Stansted, the winner was Air Berlin, at Luton, flybe (with Ryanair was the runner-up) and at Birmingham, Loganair.

It is interesting to see that those airlines renowned for good service such as Singapore Airlines and the Middle Eastern ones didn’t fare well in the punctuality list. It seems good service can outweigh punctuality in people’s perceptions!

Consumer Rights for Air Passengers

adrian — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 07:36:54 +0000

For the past 40 years, it has been the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) that has been the body that has supposedly championed the rights of consumers. That has just been brought to an end. If you want to complain about an airline or an airport there is a new body to represent us.

Actually that’s not quite true. There are two new bodies but both still attached to the CAA, Civil Aviation Authority. If you want to complain then your comments should be directed to the Regulation Policy Group run by the CAA. The interest of passengers is now the responsibility of another part of the CAA, the Aviation Consumer Advocate Panel (ACAP) so what constitutes a complaint and what is an interest? That will become clearer, I hope, as the 6 month transitional period takes place. Up until then, messages to the AUC will get to the right place because they are all still in the same building.

It is tempting to wonder what the difference is other than, in marketing words, a rebranding and two sets of stationery, websites and nameplates instead of one? After all if the AUC was doing such a splendid job why alter it? And should two bodies representing the rights of consumers sit within the CAA which regulates airlines and airports? When the government announced the changes a while ago, it was because they saw the CAA as being the consumer champion. Unlike the AUC which produced few press stories, didn’t seem to have that many average passengers represented on it, wasn’t that widely known whenever we surveyed air passengers but diligently dealt with complaints will ACAP do any better?

Ask us in a few years time!

Remember the Snow?

Editor — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:10:18 +0000

Last November and December there was snow. It caused untold disruption to travel and in particular to air travel. Airport after airport was closed, sometimes for short periods and, in the case of one large West London airport, for days. If it affected you then the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would like to hear from you.
Why?
Because they are running a two week online survey to see what you the traveler thought of it all. Were you kept informed? Were you told your rights? Did the problems cause you to see the best in the way that people responded to it. Whatever you think, they want as many people as possible to fill in the survey so that they can improve things in the future.
Click on this link, CAA survey, and you can start. There are just 33 questions, the most important possible being those towards the end where you can give your comments. It wants to know your opinions of the help you received from both the airport and the airline concerned.
And since the CAA regulates both, you know your views will be listened to.

The Daisies Are Coming

adrian — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:45:39 +0000

As you all know by know, there is a bonding system for holidays called ATOL. To remind you, the idea behind it is that if you buy from someone who is ATOL bonded, your holiday should be covered in the event that the tour operator goes bust. You will get your money back (but it might take a while) but not a replacement holiday. The problem with the system is that if you book your accommodation and flight separately you may not be covered.
CD-Traveller has written frequently about this and urged change so that all travellers are covered. Between our governments and the EU, I may have remarked that I will be pushing up the daisies before something happens at the rate things are moving.
There is one change that was mooted at the ABTA convention this week that will help. The suggestion from the CAA (who run the bonding system) is that when you book a holiday you will be given a certificate that will tell you exactly what you are covered for. From this you will then be able to judge if you need to get additional travel insurance to cover what is not covered by the bonding. But this idea is to be discussed, then there is a working party prior to the full consultation and we all know what that means in terms of time! Those confounded daisies are getting closer.
Is there a chance that they can set a time limit of say, 2 months on this consultation so that it could be ready for the main booking period for next summer? Pigs might fly first. Why can’t the main ATOL bonded companies just do it? If someone comes up with an improvement than the companies can change. But in terms of good customer relations and PR just introduce it now. TUI, the owners of Thomson and First Choice have welcomed it. CD-Traveller would happily list those companies who will issue a certificate and then at least our readers will know where they stand.

Quangos and the Holidaymaker

Editor — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:57:01 +0000

CD-Traveller (25 Sept. 2010) referred to a list of quangos that the government was planning to close, merge or retain. Yesterday the “official” list was published. Going through the list of hundreds affecting the holidaymaker and the traveller, we are not sure that we’ll notice much difference.
Starting with Consumer Focus, the body that handles general customer complaints, this will be abolished but its role will be taken over by the Citizens Advice Bureau which most of us are familiar with anyway. Visit Britain and Visit England will remain as will English Heritage and Historic Royal Palaces. A number of museums that I never knew were quangos survive as they are and this extensive list is British Museum, Horniman, Jeffrye, Imperial War, Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, National Gallery, National Maritime Museum, National Museum of Science and Industry, National Museums Liverpool, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, Royal Armouries, Sir John Soane’s Tate, Victoria & Albert and finally the Wallace Collection. The Churches Conservation Trust survives as does the Heritage Lottery Fund. (to which attractions and sites can apply for money)
British Waterways which has a brief looking after canals and rivers, over 2,000 miles of them, will be revamped as a charity similar to the National Trust so anglers, narrow boat holidaymakers and others won’t probably notice a great change. In Norfolk, the Broads Authority survives as do all the national parks’ authorities and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which is responsible for the ATOL bonding scheme survives so that means, we take it that the body which looks after complaints about airlines/airports, Air Transport Users Council, (AUC) will also survive intact since it comes under their wing.
Passenger Focus is the consumer body for rail and bus issues and they survive but they will be “substantially reformed” to focus on the key role of protecting passengers. We suspect it will take a while before we know what that means.