This week is seeing another challenging few days for the UK travel industry and holidaymakers. Many people have experienced delays and cancellations due to the problem with air traffic control on Monday.  

I know ABTA members have been working tirelessly to support customers to make new arrangements under very difficult circumstances. The fact that this happened during the school break and over a bank holiday has only added to the complexity. 

Incidents like these are a reminder of the benefit of booking a package holiday and having access to the help and expertise of an ABTA travel agent or tour operator. This can make all the difference to customers caught up in disruption.

For our part we have been providing advice and guidance to customers on their rights if they’ve been affected by the delays or cancellations. We have been running social media advertising, directing holidaymakers to the advice and guidance on abta.com. 

ABTA spokespeople have conducted a number of national and local broadcast interviews explaining people’s rights and the differences if travel arrangements were booked as part of a package or independently. More details on our media work can be found in this issue of ABTA Today.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive