Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

UNITED KINGDOM | SARAH PRAGER 1209 the implementation date being 1 January 2018, it was not possible for the usual consideration to be given to the domestic implications of the implementation of the Directive. The 2017 consultation dealt with Brexit in the following terms: “ In June 2016, the EU referendum took place and the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. Until exit negotiations are concluded, the UK remains a full member of the European Union and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force. During this period the Government will continue to negotiate, implement and apply EU legislation. The outcome of these negotiations will determine what arrangements apply in relation to EU legislation in future once the UK has left the EU .”. Effectively, then, it was made clear that the new Directive would be implemented in accordance with the UK’s international obligations. In fairness to the UK government, this had never really been in doubt, and it had consistently stated as much as regards the new Directive and generally in relation to all outstanding obligations to the EU. At the same time, in October 2017, Britain’s longest-surviving airline brand, Monarch Airlines, collapsed, prompting the UK’s biggest peacetime repatriation in history; 110,000 passengers had to be returned to the UK on specially chartered aircraft, and a further 750,000 lost their bookings. The operation is estimated to have cost the UK Civil Aviation Authority £60,000,000. Against this background, and given that the UK government was contingency planning for every conceivable outcome of negotiations, from revoking Article 50 altogether (something the Court of Justice of the European Union finally confirmed on 11 December 2018 was a possibility) to leaving the EU with no deal at all (which became a real possibility at about the same time, in Autumn 2018), it may be thought that the fact that the new Directive was implemented in the UK on time represented something of an achievement in itself. Certainly there was no time to respond to the consultation prior to the implementation date; the government’s response was only made available in April 2018. THE 2017 CONSULTATION The 2017 consultation sought responses on the following matters in particular: (a) Modes of insolvency protection for packages that do not include a flight. Would the options currently in place still be viable under the new regime?