1,000 XL Holidaymakers Will Miss Out After the Travel Firm’s Collapse

By Shahid Naqvi

Up to 1,000 people due to fly with travel firm XL from Birmingham International Airport this week had to cancel their holiday.

The operator, which went into administration on Friday, was set to fly six planes charted from Air Malta from BIA between yesterday and Thursday.

Each craft carries 180 passengers and according to a BIA spokeswoman the majority of them were likely to be flying with XL.

Following collapse of the operator, people booked to travel have been told their holiday is no longer available.

This week’s outbound flights – one yesterday, three today, one on Wednesday and on Thursday – are likely to fly out practically empty and will be employed bringing stranded tourists back.

A spokeswoman for BIA said: “People on flights coming back this week will already have been out a week or two. The main aim for the CivilAviation Authority is to get people back.”

The airport said the majority of people booked with XL were getting in touch with their booking agent to make alternative holiday arrangements.

An estimated 90,000 tourists have been left stranded since the collapse of XL, Britain’s third biggest air travel operator.

Most of them are covered by the Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (Atol) scheme run by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

But the CAA said XL’s Atol bond of pounds 42 million was unlikely to cover the cost of repatriation and refunding, meaning the CAA will have to dip into its back-up fund – the Air Travel Trust fund. A CAA spokesman said: “A couple of years ago we recommended all air travel should be protected in some way, but the Government rejected the idea.”

The Atol scheme covers the case of K&S Travel – another company that failed, leaving 150 UK tourists in Bodrum, Turkey. The CAA said flights will be arranged for all of them.

Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic boss Sir Richard Branson called for an urgent review of the rules with a view to allowing the air fleet of stricken firms to continue to fly under the watch of the CAA. He said: “It does not make sense for aircraft to be lying idle when they should be used to bring back stranded passengers.

“There is enormous pressure in the industry to help the rescue mission, which we are happy to do, but it should not be like this.”

Talks were continuing today to try to sort out a rescue package for Italian airline Alitalia.

Last week British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh predicted another 30 airlines would disappear, doubling the number that have already gone bust this year.

shahid.naqvi@birminghampost.net

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