Thousands of holidays – costing millions of pounds in total – could be lost if British Airways’ cabin crew decide to go on strike this Christmas. That’s the prediction of InsureandGo (www.insureandgo.com), the leading online travel insurance provider.
It warns that the travel insurance industry will see a huge spike in claims if industrial action takes place over the Christmas period.
InsureandGo estimates that, across the travel insurance industry in 2008, over 20,000 claims per month were made for flight cancellations, costing £9.7m. With British Airways cabin crew threatening an unspecified number of days of industrial action over Christmas, this figure could increase dramatically this December.
Most travel insurance providers cover trips booked before any strike action was known about, so anyone who booked a Christmas flight before this week could potentially get their money back.
Perry Wilson, founder of InsureandGo, said: “Christmas is a huge travelling period as people fly away for winter sun or to visit friends and family around the world. If BA’s cabin crew go ahead with their strike, it will ruin the plans of thousands of people and cost the travel insurance industry millions of pounds. We would expect to see a major increase in flight cancellation claims.”
ABTA estimated around three million Britons travelled abroad last Christmas.
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Notes to editors
* Estimate based on InsureandGo market share.
About InsureandGo
InsureandGo (www.insureandgo.com) was established in 2000 and has grown rapidly to become the UK’s largest direct travel insurance specialist. Over two million holidaymakers a year choose to cover their travels with its low cost, high value policies.
All InsureandGo policies cover children under 18 for free and include over 40 adventure sports, while its annual policies include winter sports automatically.
For further information please contact Peter Marcus on 0207 282 2815 or email:
peter.marcus@citigatedr.co.uk, or Ian Morris on 0207 282 1037 or email: ian.morris@citigatedr.co.uk.