Gooley accused the CAA of “inertia and procrastination” after it released its Atol Reform discussion document this week, labelling the process “Groundhog Day”. The document proposes segregating payments to protect customers until travel is complete plus a variable rate Atol Protection Contribution, with changes from April 2024.
Gooley said: “This document only gives an update on the current thinking at the CAA and DfT.
“We were told to expect the second Atol consultation, making specific and final proposals, in early 2022. This was pushed back yet again to early 2023. We all expected this to bring closure, not an announcement taking us to April 2024, with even further consultation and of course no certainty of closure even then.”
Trailfinders already protects client money until they travel, something the CAA is proposing for the whole industry.
Gooley said the new document “tiptoes around”, but added: “It does suggest the authors are beginning to grasp what needs to be done after years of obfuscation and delay. They just lack the industry, acumen and resolve to get on with it.
“As a financial regulator they should not be trying to win a vote from the self-interested industry but set policy that best serves the consumer and the taxpayer.”
He argued there was a need for action, not more consultation.
“Asking the same questions, to the same audience, whose bias is unchanged, is not going to yield new answers. Once again they are asking the fox how the henhouse should be protected.”
Until there was change, he said, the CAA would continue requiring travel organisers to compensate clients of failed companies.
He asked: “Why are we to be so forced, until at least April 2024, to subsidise the fallout of business practices which are illegal in every other major industry?"
