A-ha!!! Thanks Eugene never thought to look at that.
Just had a closer look at the API for each component and sure enough there are listings of keypresses required for each one. You were right it was in fact working correctly bar the inclusion of the table's scrollpane and a textfield in the focus cycle which can be easily taken out.
The only thing I don't understand though is the placing of the call to setFocusTraversalPolicy.
If I place it in the main JFrame to pick up all components in the container it does nothing. So to get it working I have added it to my searchPanel which is one of three (search, booking and status) panels placed in the north, center and south areas of the JFrame respectively.
How on earth is the FocusTraversalPolicy picking up all the components in the searchPanel then stepping back and then forward again into the booking panel then out again and into the status panel?
Kindest regards Sam