“If the demand was there, airlines would be flying” explains airline boss

PALMA
MONARCH Group overseas director and head of purchasing, Hugh Morgan, who has helped organise the Future Travel convention in Majorca this week, said yesterday that, while he understands that some people are going to be affected by the winter flight reductions “it all comes down to demand and airlines, especially under the current economic climate, are not going to be flying half empty planes.” The Pollensa-based Morgan, who is also a director of Cosmos Holidays and the newly formed Co-operative Travel Group, underlined the fact that airlines reduce their Balearic operations every winter but highlighted the fact that higher Air Passenger Duty, rising fuel costs, continually weak pound and a lack of major demand due to the weather have made airlines take a more closer look at winter load factors to destinations like the Balearics. “If the passengers were there, we would be flying them,” he said. “I guess it's a chicken and egg situation, but the airlines will be counting the number of sun chasers and, to be realistic, during the winter the Balearics does not attract that kind of market in large numbers,” he added. “However, what we're doing in the meantime, for example, is trying to bring as many travel agents down to the Balearics and Spain as a whole over the winter as part of our strategy to push the Balearics and Spain as a destination for next year. “We've got over 200 Future Travel (part of the Co-operative Travel Group) home workers coming down this week so they can experience Majorca as a holiday product and be better placed to sell holidays to the island when they return home,” he told the Bulletin yesterday. “They begin arriving today, along with a number of travel company directors and CEOs and will be taking part in three days of working sessions. As we all heard the other week at the Abta convention in Barcelona, in the UK, we're probably going to bumble along at the bottom of the recession for the next two to three years and there's going to be no sudden upsurge in business. “It's been a tough summer and it's going to be an interesting winter. But, we've got to be confident and have faith in our products. “The Balearics and Spain is always very important to us as a destination and we want the home workers to return to the UK fully focused on selling the Balearics next year,” he explained.

But, Spain's announcement that it intends to put VAT up by two percent has stunned and worried the travel industry.