Travel agents deny trying to halt Munster flights
The National President of the association, Michael Doorley, said last night while his organisation was becoming increasingly concerned with the amount of unlicensed and unbonded activity in the travel sector, it had not tried to stop flights carrying rugby fans to the match tomorrow.
He admitted, however, that the ITAA had discussions with the Irish Aviation Commission before Christmas about the issue of unlicensed and unbonded operators and had highlighted the activities of some operators.
“We believe the situation is so serious that it requires investigation and we are waiting to see what emerges from the Commission’s inquiries into the matter.”
Mr Doorley added that, despite this, he knew of flights from both Cork and Limerick bringing fans to the Gloucester game, but he added: “Munster fans have nothing to fear from us. To the best of my knowledge none of our operators have tried to stop any flights carrying Munster fans to this match and I’d be very surprised if they had.”
However, he added he was concerned about rumours circulating in both Limerick and Cork that travel agents were carrying out a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign against the organisers of fans’ flights.
“I’d really be very surprised if anything of that nature was being carried out by travel agents, but I would be very worried that there is a concerted smear campaign being run against agents,” he said.
There were widespread rumours circulating last night that several people travelling to Gloucester had received anonymous calls telling them their flights would not operate, and hotels had received telephoned warnings of unsavoury elements planning to stay.
“I would be very surprised if anything of that nature was going on, and particularly so if any travel agents were involved,” the ITAA President said.
He added that his organisation simply wanted to operate on a level playing pitch and to compete only against licensed and bonded operators.
“It has come to our attention that there are a number of people operating, as we would see it, outside the regulations we have to abide by and that’s not fair.”
Apart from the situation with the rugby trips, the ITAA has also come across an operator in Donegal running trips for country and western fans and a person in Kerry running trips to America.
“There is a lot of illegal trading going on up and down the country and we want to make sure these people are operating under the same rules as everyone else in the industry,” he said.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
