It was a non-event of the first order – and that was good news, all things considered.
The headline for this edition of ‘It Happened This Week’ is: ‘ACTA members with errors & omissions covered for Y2K’
In the waning days of the decade, when people weren’t debating over the new millennium’s start date – was it Jan. 1, 2000, or Jan. 1, 2001? – they were comparing readiness plans for ‘Y2K’.
When the clocks ticked over from 1999 to 2000 – computer clocks that is, and any calendar data stored in computers – there were legitimate concerns that programs that marked the years by just the last two digits wouldn’t tick over to 2000, but would instead revert to 1900.
It was a small matter that threatened to cause big problems around the world, for any computer-reliant industry. And that included travel. To calm the fears of travellers who worried that Y2K would cause havoc for aircraft operations mid-flight, some airline executives took to the skies in the crucial Y2K hours, to give would-be passengers confidence to do the same. Other airlines planned to briefly ground their fleets, just in case.
So what happened? Not much, thankfully. Millions and millions of dollars and countless hours spent re-programming computer systems and getting the world ‘Y2K compliant’ meant that industries including travel and aviation made it through the switchover to 2000 unscathed.
As this Travelweek article notes, ACTA members with errors and omissions insurance from Potruff & Smith were covered, no matter what. When this story ran, ACTA had just wrapped up what it called ‘the world’s first Y2K travel industry meeting’. The ACTA Y2K Task Force hosted 90 travel industry leaders and stakeholders for the meeting, held in Ottawa. The news about Y2K coverage with Potruff & Smith’s E&O insurance was just one of many updates that came out of the meeting.
Did the headline about Y2K appear in Travelweek in 1990, 1999 or 2002?
Fill out the contest form below, with your guess and your email address. We’ll announce the answer and the winner next week, along with the next contest headline. Last week’s headline about GIANTS rebranding to Ensemble ran in June 2004. Our winner for Week #17 is Kim Bradley with Uniglobe in Surrey, B.C. Congratulations Kim!
Every Wednesday in Travelweek Daily, we’re posting an article from Travelweek’s archives, spanning the years 1973 – 2023. Guess the correct year the story ran, and you could win a $50 Amazon gift card. There’s a new headline and a new chance to win every single week.
