The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) has advised the UK government to find a way to offer financial security to passengers in the event that the airline they are travelling with goes out of business, leaving customers stranded abroad.

Zoom, a transatlantic budget carrier that recently went into liquidation, left more than 4,500 UK passengers stranded at their holiday destinations in the United States and Canada.

Sean Tipton, an Abta spokesman, said that the government should do more to abate the problems passengers experience when airlines or travel companies go out of business.

Mr Tipton suggested a scheme requiring the government to pay a nominal sum to a central fund each time someone in the UK makes a travel booking.

"Every time a travel company went out of business, including airlines, that money would be used to give customers their money back," Mr Tipton explained.

The Netherlands already a scheme similar to this, which works in "an extremely straightforward fashion".

Mr Tipton also claimed that a government donation scheme would go a significant way to increasing consumer protection while also addressing the fact that individual airlines are not obligated to finance cover for their passengers but tour operators are.

Airline Booking and Information