Plans to force airlines to refund passengers for booked flights which became 'illegal' to take due to Covid travel restrictions have reportedly been scrapped.
Ministers are said to have quietly abandoned the proposal, which would have seen the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) watchdog granted extra 'enforcement powers', according to the Times.
It comes after carriers including British Airways and Ryanair refused to issue refunds to passengers when strict coronavirus measures effectively made their tickets null and void last year.
Typically, if a customer books a flight directly with an airline and it is cancelled, they are due their money back.
However the unprecedented travel rules owing to the pandemic simply made it 'illegal' for the majority of passengers to board.
It means they were not owed an automatic refund because their flights had not been cancelled directly by the carriers.
The legal loophole led MPs to agree that tougher enforcement powers were needed - particularly given that any court action launched by the CAA against the airlines can take years to complete.
Ministers are said to have quietly abandoned the proposal, which would have seen the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) watchdog granted extra 'enforcement powers' against carries (file photo)
In April this year, the Department for Transport (DfT) also vowed to grant the airlines watchdog extra powers in a bid to 'build consumer confidence and develop trust in booking travel'.
However aviation minister Robert Courts suggested in Parliament last week that there were no such plans in place.
He said now was not an 'appropriate' time to review the CAA's statutory duties because of the 'significant impact' of the coronavirus crisis.
Responding to a question from Labour MP Ruth Cadbury, Mr Courts said: 'Due to the significant impact that the Covid-19 crisis has had on both our aviation industry and the CAA, we do not consider it appropriate at this time to review the statutory duties of the CAA overall.
'However, we will consider changes to the CAA's powers and duties where necessary.'
Rory Boland, travel editor of the consumer group Which?, accused the
