Yesterday, UK based Thomas Cook, Europe’s second largest tour operator, was in a hugely vulnerable state, battling to secure its long-term future. It means more than ever holiday travel plans should be financially protected. And raises the question again, is Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax to blame?

The operator found itself going to the Banks to ask for additional funding, seeing its share price drop by 75% in one day.

Immediate Cost Cuts Could Result in 1,000s of Job Losses
Immediate cost cutting action, in a bid to slow down debt that has already amounted to £1billion year to date, with fears of that figure rising to over £1.5 billion by the end of the year, Thomas Cook will look at closing 200 branches of its high street stores. This alone will costs thousands their jobs, which in turn will have a big impact on local towns and the economy as a whole.

This year, the now German-owned company, has already issued three profit warnings. Blaming its debt problems on the lack of families booking their summer holiday break. Not only has the tour operator, who also operates sub-brands such as Going Places, Cresta, Sunset and 18-30s, seen a dramatic dip in the traditional two week summer holiday but also the profitable ‘holiday extras’ such as travel insurance; as the internet offers cut price packages, flights and holiday extras.

Thomas Cook Must Act Fast to Secure Its Future For New Year Bookings
And the company must act fast to secure its financial future. Not only are the winter months when tour operators must look at paying for their hotel rooms for the following year, but also as it fast approaches its busiest time of year – the New Year for new holiday bookings. Whilst the New Year is great for bookings, travellers will want to be sure that their holiday is secure. That they won’t be stranded overseas if the company goes bust. If travellers are put off from booking their holiday with Thomas Cook at the early start of next year this could have a huge impact on the future of the tour operator in 2012.

For many, not only due to the loss of jobs, the stress for those having booked a holiday and the threat of losing a regular high street favourite, possibly one of the saddest things will be losing yet another founder of industry. Thomas Cook was founded in 1841 as the World’s first package holiday provider, and now provides over 7 million breaks to Britons every year!

Government Admit APD is a ‘Tax Grab’
No doubt as the news breaks of this holiday giant in severe trouble it will see major holiday and aviation heads raising the arguments again over the controversial APD. The Government has already admitted a few months ago, in a leaked memo by Chancellor, George Osborne, that APD was nothing more than a ‘tax grab’.

‘Axe the Tax’ Campaign Launched by Four of the Biggest Airlines
By coincidence, four of the biggest airlines to operate out of the UK – British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic – have again called on the Government to scrap APD. They have even created a campaign called ‘Axe the Tax’. The airlines are calling for the Chancellor to scrap APD in his Autumn Statement, to be given on 29th November, instead of the sharp rise in charges that the aviation industry fears will happen next April.

Financially Protect Your Holiday
Thomas Cook, as a tour operator, is a member of ATOL. This means that for any traveller booking with an ATOL protected operator will have the peace of mind that should the operator go bust before the travel date then a complete refund will be given. And if the traveller is overseas at the time of the operator going bust they will be helped home by the Civil Aviation Authority.

For those booking travel arrangements via a travel agent the advice is to ensure they are an ABTA Travel Agent. This will again mean that your holiday is secure if the agent goes bust before travel, and assistance to get home will be given should the traveller be overseas.

Booking independently? Make sure they are members of either the Travel Trust Association or the Association of Independent Tour Operators.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to investigate the charges over foreign currency exchange after being issued a super complaint by consumer watchdog, Customer Focus.

The super complaint says that the British public are being charged around £1 billion a year in charges. Charges, which the watchdog says were unclear, excessive and possibly even unwarranted.

Charges for exchanging monies were exampled in the report, citing that exchanging £500 into Euros can vary as much as from £10 up to £30 – Customer Focus says that consumers are confused as to how much foreign currency they will actually get for their £500 budget.

The complaint also cites that advertising for foreign exchanges are misleading. It states that marketing headlines such as “0% commission” and “competitive exchange rates” are ambiguous. The phrase, 0% commission is under fire, given says the research, that rates have been inflated to include mark-ups, which is effectively the bureau de change or bank’s ‘commission’.

Talking about the super complaint, Consumer Focus Chief Executive, Mike O’Connor, says “Almost half of us travel abroad every year, and we face a confusing array of hidden charges every time we buy currency. There are huge differences in the prices charged, for essentially providing the same service and, typically, banks offer the worst deal.”

As a result, Consumer Focus are calling for the OFT to review three key areas in which will help consumers. These are:

• A clearer explanation of exchange rates for customers to make comparisons of exchange rates
• Simplifying the charging structure for card usage overseas
• Cost-reflective cash withdrawal charges on UK transactions, and if not justified then banned

Mr O’Connor concluded, “A cocktail of confusing charges and poor transparency means collectively we are losing out in a big way. We are calling on the OFT to investigate and work with the industry to send these dubious and complex charges packing.”

The Government has announced it is to go ahead with the ATOL (Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing) reforms.

The changes are seen as necessary in today’s holiday market and are expected to add holiday protection to another 6 million holidays.

Subject to a consultation in the Spring, the Government aims to make the following changes to ATOL:

• Extend protection to include ‘flight plus’ holidays – covering trips including a flight where the various elements are purchased within a specified short period – essentially looking like a package holiday but falling outside the existing legal definition.
• Deter businesses from misleading consumers about their level of protection. Some companies offer holidays which might look like packages but make the transaction as an “agent for the customer” without explaining to the customer that this means forfeiting ATOL protection. These proposals are designed to provide customers with a clear and honest explanation so they can make informed decisions.
• Replace the wide variety of documents which companies currently issue with standardised information for travellers, making it clear when their trip is ATOL protected. Work on this is already underway, with the Civil Aviation Authority and the travel industry developing an easily recognisable certificate for protected holidays.

oneworld® has been named the World’s Leading Airline Alliance 2010 in the World’s Travel Awards – described by the Wall Street Journal as the “travel industry’s equivalent of the Oscars”.

It is the eighth year running that oneworld has won this honour, retaining the “best alliance” title since 2003.

oneworld was also named World’s Best Airline Alliance in the 2010 World Airline Awards, presented by the Skytrax airline quality organisation in May. In addition, it has also won both the “best alliance for in-flight wines” titles presented this year – in Global Traveler magazine’s Wines on the Wing awards in August and Business Traveller’s Cellars in the Sky in February. oneworld is also a three-time winner of the Best Airline Alliance title from Business Traveller magazine.

oneworld member airlines also flew high in the World Travel Awards, with Cathay Pacific named World Leading Airline Economy Class, and American Airlines as North America’s Leading Airline.

The 2010 World Travel Awards were presented at a ceremony in London last night, based on votes cast by more than 180,000 travel agents and other travel professionals worldwide.

Paris’s main airport, Charles de Gaulle, is at risk of running out of fuel in the next day or two, so warns France’s Transport Ministry.

The fuel crisis is as a result of the impending strikes by Air Traffic Control workers, in disagreement with the Government’s plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. A statement from the country’s Ecology Ministry said “it will not elaborate but Charles de Gaulle Airport only has enough fuel supplies to last until Monday or Tuesday this week”.

Concerns are now around consumers panic buying fuel across the country as French Finance Minister stressed that there was no shortage of fuel.

The Transport and Ecology Ministry refused to comment as to what it would do should the current fuel supplies expire.

The Civil Aviation Authority has reported that in recent months the airline industry has seen the collapse of Kiss Flights, Goldtrail and Sun4U. This will result in costs over £40m being funded by the Air Travel Trust (ATT), which is the main source of funding when an ATOL member fails.

The ATT will be paying approximately 120,000 Goldtrail Customers around £20m, the 64,000 Kiss passengers affected around £20m and the 4,200 Sun4U passengers around £1m.

Whilst the ATT has funds to pay these claims, at the end of March this year the fund had a deficit of £31.8m.

According to a recent survey by WAYN, a European social networking site, Visa restrictions and immigration procedures makes the UK the least accessible country in Europe to visit by travellers.

The same survey however, cited the UK as offering the best value for money and the best for shopping.

Asked where most likely to take a free holiday anywhere in Europe, the survey ranked Switzerland as the most popular choice. It was also ranked as the top country for a winter break. Whilst Italy and Spain came out as the most popular summer sun destinations.

France was voted as the country with the least most popular locals, followed closely by Germany and in third position, the UK.

Italian cuisine beat off tough competition from France and Spain in coming out top for the best food.

According to online data analysts Experian Hitwise, the most popular UK travel search term this summer (May-July) was ‘flights to New York’.

‘Flights to New York’ accounted for nearly four per cent of all flight searches by UK browsers.

European destinations continued to remain high in search terms – 43% of total flight search terms – with Alicante, Tenerife and Malaga featuring heavily.

The most popular single search term was ‘flights to Australia’ which accounted for nearly 1% of all flight searches.

Research Director for Experian Hitwise, Robin Goad, said “The US is clearly still a big attraction for UK holidaymakers with New York, Florida and Orlando all featuring within the top 10 of our list of top travel destinations.”

Begbies Traynor, the administrators of failed travel company Goldtrail, has set up a website to give customers and travel agents an update on Goldtrail’s insolvency.

For more information check out http://begbiestraynor.insolvencypoint.com/goldtrail

There’s more misery for air passengers today as French airspace is disrupted by yet another strike by air traffic controllers.

The industrial action is expected to last until 7am (local time) 22 July 2010.