Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a trust account model for flight bookings made through online travel agents.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a number of challenges. Going forward, the department is keen to work with the regulator, industry and consumer groups on potential options for strengthening our schemes and models.

The Department has recently acted to ensure that if ATOL-protected holidaymakers who have package holidays including a flight accept refund credit notes rather than a cash refund for their cancelled holiday as a result of COVID-19, they will be protected by the ATOL scheme if necessary even if the company they have booked with later collapses.

By providing confidence to holidaymakers that their refund credit notes are protected if they choose them over refunds, this will mean customers are able to support the travel sector’s recovery from the pandemic by accepting a refund credit note.