The Group also repays all monies received from the UK governments furlough scheme
London, UK: The Southall Travel Group has refunded in excess of a staggering £110m, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has devasted the UK travel industry.
Southall Travel Group, which has been operating for almost 40 years, is also one of the UK’s only major travel companies to have completed all refunds on package holidays which were cancelled due to the pandemic.
To meet the extraordinary demands, the Group significantly invested in both its customer care centre and its refund processing team shortly after the pandemic began to severely impact the business, in order to deliver a first-class experience.
Furthermore, due to a unique cost structure that is both scalable for upsizing and downsizing, the Group was able to take these positive changes to its business, while reducing its administration costs by 65%.
The Southall Travel Group has also repaid all the monies received from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (furlough), which it received from the UK government last year and this year.
Kuljinder Bahia, Director at Southall Travel Group comments:
“Last year was a year like no other for our industry. Whilst no one saw this coming and businesses were simply not prepared, we very quickly made the decision to ramp up our refund operations in order to meet with the demands of customers.
“Despite our business being significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we recently made the decision to repay all furlough money received from the UK government, for 2020 and 2021. We felt it was ethically correct to take this action, and not add to the already extreme pressures on the public purse caused by the unprecedented pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to impact our business, however with the incredible success of the vaccine rollout, and the recent positive changes positive to travel restrictions here in the UK which will make it much easier for people to travel abroad, there is certainly light at the end of the tunnel.
“These changes have had a positive impact on trading, and we are now much more confident that bookings will soon return to pre-pandemic levels.
“I am incredibly proud of the team here at the Southall Travel Group, who have worked so tirelessly and adapted seamlessly to the new way of working throughout the pandemic.”
The Southall Travel Group is one of the UK’s leading travel companies, offering a range of travel products including flights, hotels, and package holidays, to destinations around the world including the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, the USA, and the Far East.
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