Lapland travel operator accused of living in Disneyland
The charge was made yesterday by RTÉ’s Liveline presenter Joe Duffy after the commissioner for aviation regulation, Cathal Guiomard, said it was unlikely that Dublin-based United Travel would be issued with a new tour operator’s licence.
United Travel, which is prohibited from trading, has received more than 1,000 bookings for its annual package holiday to Lapland, but customers have been left in limbo.
Mr Duffy also told Mr Guiomard he would be cast in the role of the Grinch who stole Christmas for preventing the tour operator from taking children to Lapland. “Are you prepared to adopt that role,” Mr Duffy asked him.
“I do not want to be the Grinch who has several hundred children in Lapland on Christmas Eve and no aircraft to take them home. That is precisely what I am worried about,” Mr Guiomard stressed.
The aviation authority warned United Travel managing director Con Murphy that he could not be sure of having his licence renewed in early October. Later the same month the licence was refused by the regulator.
The commission’s decision was based on a number of reasons, including the inadequate financial situation of the company and the fact that no charter arrangements appeared to have been put in place for various advertised packages.
United Travel appealed the decision to the High Court and continued to trade until the end of last month when the court confirmed the commission’s decision not to renew the licence.
But instead of accepting the court’s decision, Mr Murphy presented the commission with a fresh application.
“I do not think it is likely that we will be giving a different answer to the first one,” said Mr Guiomard.
Mr Duffy urged Mr Murphy to listen to what Mr Guiomard was saying. “Come on, Con. You are not going to Lapland. You are living in Disneyland and there is the aviation regulator saying wind up this afternoon. It sounds awful for you and your staff but it is a clear as a bell.”
But Mr Murphy said he had no comment to make because it was the first time he had heard the view expressed by the commission.
Mr Guiomard said the commission’s solicitors expressed this same view in a letter to Mr Murphy on Tuesday — that it was unlikely there was a change of heart. Later, Mr Murphy told the Irish Examiner that it was a nightmare before Christmas for him and his 12 staff members but he would continue to do everything in his power to take customers to Lapland.
