Rowles told the association’s general meeting in London on Thursday (7 October) that the “landscape” for operators and agents was changing, with more enquiries and bookings coming in after the government finally loosened restrictions for international travel.
“It looks like things are starting to change although there are still challenges,” said Rowles. “I do believe the landscape is changing – but not for all and not at the same pace for everybody.
“I hear of phones ringing again. People have had to learn to sell holidays again. Business is starting to return.
“This should have happened six months ago – that’s what was happening in Europe. There’s no reason why it couldn’t have happened then if the government had been logical and not following a hidden agenda.
“Europe is getting back to normality with long-haul operations in a slightly different place.”
Matt Purser, director at the Travel Trade Consultancy, agreed that the UK “is still lagging behind the rest of Europe” when it came to the recovery in international travel.
He revealed data from air traffic body Eurocontrol showing flight capacity from the UK in September was down by 43% compared with September 2019; this contrasted with a fall of 29% in Europe as a whole, with markets such as Germany, France and Spain all outperforming the UK.
Purser added last month’s round of Atol renewals had been a “painful one”, with lots of “toing and froing” to get companies’ licences renewed.
Although, he said the CAA had “stepped back” from insisting that operators should already be using escrow or trust accounts to protect consumer money.
Purser also questioned why the CAA wanted to “rip up” current Atol regulations based on the scale of losses suffered by the Air Travel Trust from the Thomas Cook failure two years ago.
“That’s what I find extraordinary – changing the regulations off the back of a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Purser.
