Civil Aviation Bill (Committee Stage) - Concluding debate on amendment no.36
Lord Faulkner of Worcester:
What an interesting debate. I thank noble Lords of all political parties and none for their support and I thank the Minister for the courtesy, charm and eloquence of his reply. There is no Minister who conveys unwelcome news to meetings in this House better than my noble friend Lord Davies and I commend him for it.
He was correct in saying that this is not the end of the debate. I am quite certain that even if I loyally accept the instructions of my Whips and take the amendment no further, the enthusiasm of the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, and the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw, for bringing it back may mean that we will have to consider it properly on Report.
Perhaps I may correct a couple of things that the Minister said. I do so having had the advantage of reading the CAA report on the failure of EU Jet. The proportion of people who got home for £25 was only 16 per cent. The average price people paid to come back was £100 per person. Others paid up to £200.
On the question of credit cards against debit cards, life would be much easier for consumers if the airlines made it clear that the credit card carries with it consumer protection, and that that is what you are getting for paying the supplement which they insist on charging for bookings made by credit card, whereas if you book by debit card, you get no protection at all. That is dishonest. There is a consumer protection aspect to this matter which must be taken up with the airlines and other organisations which deny customers their rights by making it more difficult and expensive for them to use credit cards than debit cards.
I made the point that a substantial amount of compulsion is already involved in air travel protection. That is provided by ATOL. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, has said, we now have an uneven playing field as a result of the huge growth in direct booking with airlines on the Internet. The consequence is that the protection people traditionally enjoyed with ATOL has now disappeared for the large majority who book their holidays in absolute ignorance of how little coverage they are given.
The most heartening words used by my noble friend Lord Davies came quite early on in his speech. I wrote them down. He said that, "we do not believe that the case is made out as it has been expressed today".
He challenges me to make the case slightly more convincingly at later stages of the Bill, and we will work on that. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
© Lords Hansard 8 December 2005