Lapland operator still hopeful despite advice to close
The Commission for Aviation Regulation has urged United Travel — which is prohibited from trading — to wind down and refund customers.
The Dublin-based company has over 1,175 bookings for its Lapland package and insists it was ready for takeoff once a tour operator’s licence was issued.
“We have Monarch Airlines waiting for us to go. We have our ground handler in Finland waiting to go. We are all ready,” said United’s Margaret El Fashny.
She pointed out that customers due to fly out at the weekend were contacted and asked if they would like an alternative flight date as the company remained in limbo with the commission.
Ms El Fashny said some customers had demanded their money back. She said there was a “procedure” customers had to undertake with them, by email, but did not elaborate further.
Asked if the company would arrange for another operator to facilitate their customers, Ms El Fashny said they had already pointed out it was not feasible.
Some customers told RTÉ’s Liveline they had paid more than €4,000 to bring children to Lapland in the coming days.
Asked if the company was considering winding up, she replied: “Absolutely not.
“We are fighting to the death because Con Murphy [United Travel’s managing director] does not want to let people down.”
It is understood, however, that the commission is now seeking further clarification from United Travel on a number of issues.
A commission spokesperson said it did not have enough evidence to back up Mr Murphy’s claims in relation to the company’s current financial circumstances.
Mr Murphy has said that if he failed to get a licence, all he could do was refer the matter back to the commission who would have to call in the company’s travellers’ protection fund.
The spokesperson said the commission could not release money from a travellers’ protection fund until the business was wound up.
Chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents Association, Simon Nugent, said it was a “desperately unsatisfactory” situation from the association’s point of view.
Mr Nugent said it highlighted a weakness in the 1982 Transport Tour Operator and Travel Agents Act that they wanted reformed for some time now.
While the commission could refuse a licence, it did not have the power to shut down a company, particularly following an unsuccessful appeal by the company to the High Court.
“We have a good, robust and extensive consumer protection regime but it appears to be wanting in this unusual case, which is a first off, because we have never come across a case like this before,” he said.
Mr Nugent said the ITAA had been trying to get Mr Murphy and the regulator to resolve the issue for some time. They were also trying to make alternative arrangements for families who had booked holidays in Lapland with United Travel but that was proving very difficult.
