Transport Minister Meets ABTA Board Members in Park Street

Minister discusses ATOL reform and aviation capacity

2012-11-29 — /travelprnews.com/ — The Rt Hon Simon Burns MP, Minister of State for Transport, met the ABTA Board today to discuss his views on the challenges facing the travel industry and how he will work to address them.

The Minister’s visit to ABTA is one of the first he has made to an industry body since taking up his position as Transport Minister in September’s Cabinet reshuffle. The visit gave ABTA Members the opportunity to express their concerns on the most important transport issues affecting businesses in the industry, including: the need to bring airlines into the ATOL financial protection scheme; the shape and level of Air Passenger Duty and Government plans to address concerns on airport capacity throughout the UK – emphasising the importance of leisure travel as part of the UK’s aviation mix.

Mark Tanzer, ABTA Chief Executive said: “The Minister has taken up his role at an absolutely critical time.  The need for a comprehensive solution to the aviation capacity constraints hindering UK growth has never been more pressing. There is also much work to be done to create a fair and clear ATOL scheme. The Civil Aviation Bill, which will become law soon, gives this Government a unique opportunity to achieve this.

“We’ve built a strong relationship with the DfT in recent years and today’s meeting was a continuation of that constructive relationship. The Minister was keen to listen to and understand the industry’s most pressing concerns and we will continue to lobby him to ensure a successful and sustainable UK travel and tourism industry.”

Simon Burns MP, Minister of State for Transport said: “This was a constructive and informative meeting with ABTA and its members to discuss their views on some of the issues affecting transport in the UK. The UK is currently one of the best connected countries in the world. Our airport network provides UK citizens and business with the international connections they need to trade, to visit friends and family and to go on holiday, and it is right that the passenger is at the heart of our aviation policy.

“We will therefore continue to work with ABTA and other key stakeholders as we modernise the ATOL scheme and develop a sustainable aviation policy that supports economic growth while reflecting the environmental impacts of flying.”

For further information

Sean Tipton, Media Relations Manager, tel: 020 3117 0513
Gillian Edwards, Senior Public Relations Manager, 020 3117 0514
Victoria Bacon Head of Communications, tel: 020 3117 0515
Out of Hours:  Contact the Duty Press Officer via pager: 07659 190 987
E-mail: press@abta.co.uk
Web: www.abta.com
Twitter: @ABTAtravel

Notes to editors

For a hi-res version of the image please contact the PR team.

ABTA has been at the heart of travel for more than 60 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers – the travelling public – have confidence in their travel experience.

The ABTA brand stands for expertise, reliability and fairness. These qualities are core to us. They ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members.

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today’s changing travel landscape by providing schemes of financial protection and a course of redress if something goes wrong; by raising standards in the industry and by giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety; and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA currently has around 1,300 Members and represents over 5,000 retail outlets and offices. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we’re working at the heart of the industry to ensure that we continue to build confidence in travel visit www.abta.com.

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Transport Minister Meets ABTA Board Members in Park Street

Transport Minister Meets ABTA Board Members in Park Street