In Reply to: We were stung by the posted by Fiona on Sunday, 16. August 2009 at 13:47 Bali Time:
is something I could not understand at the time of the Air Paradise collapse, particularly as the Australian authorities had already seen the inadaquecy of the "system" with Compass 1 & 2 and Ansett.
It is ludicrous that Travel Agencies are compelled to be a member of the Travel Compensation Fund to protect clients in the event that their business fails, but there is no provision for Airlines to be included in this scheme. They should be forced to hold funds in a Trust Account until actual departure date. In the case of Air Paradise, its Head Office was in Indonesia which compounded the problem.
I expect that in the present IndoJet saga, if they were to pass the buck back to OzJet, the same situation would exist - as OzJet is an "airline in liquidation" and not subject to TCF regulations.
There is also the "shades of grey" in the IndoJet situation where there is IndoJet (the agency) and IndoJet Asia (the company responsible for Aircraft Charter)which is based in Indonesia and exempt from any Australian regulations.