Passengers could be paying a levy of 50p per ticket in a bid to create a repatriation fund, this fund will help British passengers to fly home when an airline goes bust.
IAG British Airways said airline passengers “should not be charged a levy to bail out other carriers.”
A review conducted by the Airline Insolvency Review was launched following the collapse of Monarch in 2017. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) helped 85,000 passengers at the time costing £40.5m to tax payers.
Airline Insolvency Review chairman Peter Bucks said, “Ensuring all passengers can get home requires organisation, funding and, in many cases, more than simply rebooking on to other flights.
“I hope that the work of the review will, while there is no silver bullet, act as a catalyst to ensure that both passengers and taxpayers are appropriately safeguarded when airlines collapse in the future.”
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, an industry association representing 13 UK-registered carriers said, “Airlines face rising costs and this is not the time to make it more expensive to travel.
“Fifty pence may not sound much but airlines operate on wafer-thin margins and passengers already pay over £3 billion each year to the Treasury in Air Passenger Duty.
“The chances of booking with an airline that goes bust remain extremely small. When it’s happened, airlines have demonstrated their commitment to bringing passengers home through voluntary rescue fares which worked extremely well and without any taxpayer liability.”
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