Travel agents check in to reject criticism

THE Irish travel operators involved in providing charter services for the big Heineken Cup games throughout Europe have defended their patch in the wake of criticism from rugby star Marcus Horan.

The international prop forward this week questioned the prices being charged by travel companies for the transportation and accommodation of fans to fixtures abroad and suggested Munster supporters, in particular, had been financially screwed in some of their journeys throughout Britain and Europe.

In a measured but strong retort, Pat Dawson, the President of the Irish Travel Agents Association, whose company is involved in the transportation of fans to San Sebastian for Munster’s Heineken Cup semi-final with Biarritz, said he was disappointed with Horan’s comments and offered to provide the player with a personal insight into the background costs of running charters packages from Ireland.

“Marcus is a wonderful player but his comments don’t reflect the reality of the costs associated with running charter operations from Ireland for special events,’’ Dawson said. “You have to know the ins and outs of chartering an aircraft; people assume that chartering aircraft is like the scheduled air business, but that’s not the case.

“For instance, in order to charter an aircraft to Biarritz or Bilbao, there can be up to four empty legs. These charters can involve six flights from source, and only two of them are full with passengers.

“It’s a very popular thing to say there is overcharging, but if anyone can suggest ways of doing it cheaper and better, then I reckon us people in the travel trade would be willing to sit down and discuss it.

“There are other issues involved and clients need to have guarantees. Some years ago, people tried to charter planes with no licences and it didn’t work. They (the operators) were charging less of course, but that was because they didn’t have any necessary licence.

“ITAA members are fully bonded and licensed; that doesn’t come cheap either but we pride ourselves in providing a service that guarantees clients will get to and from their destinations and have the protection of travelling with fully bonded companies,” he said.

Dawson found support from Sean Skehan, of Killester Travel who also heads up Munster and Leinster Sports Travel companies.

He emphasised too that there were costs associated with such movements that don’t relate to scheduled air services.

“For instance, in a week like this we have to take on extra staff to deal with customer demand and we also provide staff to accompany these groups abroad as well as the inclusion of transfers to and from the game.

“It’s not a simple operation and I firmly believe that we (all) provide a good service at a good price taking into account all the different aspects of the package,” he said.