Y. J. Foo 0 Report post Posted December 17, 2009 (edited) Flyglobespan Collapse Hits Travellers By REUTERS Published: December 17, 2009 Filed at 5:47 a.m. ET LONDON (Reuters) - Around 4,500 passengers were stranded abroad on Thursday after the suspension of Scottish airline Flyglobespan, administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers said. The owner of the airline, Globespan, was put into administration late on Wednesday after suffering a cash crisis. All flights by the Edinburgh-based airline have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled. Most of the stranded passengers are in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Egypt. Some 1,000 who booked holiday packages with the airline will be covered by ATOL industry-backed insurance. But the other 3,500 who booked flights directly face covering the extra cost of their return flight with alternative carriers. Those who paid by credit card are being advised to contact their card issuer to see if they are also protected. Around 800 staff jobs at the airline are at risk. "We are talking to all staff this morning," administrator Bruce Cartwright of PricewaterhouseCoopers told BBC television. "Unfortunately it is absolutely clear that the operation has ceased to fly ... The operation is in wind-down, which inevitably means redundancies." Cartwright said he would be trying to track down what funds were available at the airline. "Globespan itself is owed considerable money from online bookings that hasn't reached the company," he said. "I believe there are substantial sums owed to Globespan that really should be in our hands but currently are not." (Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Steve Addison) -NYT This surely must've ruined a lot people's Christmas... Edited December 17, 2009 by Y. J. Foo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ken M. 0 Report post Posted December 17, 2009 Amazed they lasted so long. They won't be the last airline to go under in this worldwide recession, of that I have no doubt. It's been well known in the UK aviation scene that they have been in "financial trouble" for some time. Senior management were saying 36 hours before they went into adminstration that they "hoped" to have financial backing in place and the company was looking forward to the future! Long haul expansion really put them on the slippery slope. Transatlantic delays, cancellations, reroutes and poor customer service are no way to run an airline. Feel sorry for the staff but the airline's name has been mud for the last couple of years (see www.airlinequality.com for further details). As for the passengers, well if you book with unstable airlines at cheap prices you take a risk in my book. Seems a lot of their customers still chose to pay up front via debit cards, not credit cards which offer money back protection in event of airline collapse. They will probably not see their money again. Some people just never learn. This is the last thing Glasgow Airport needed at the moment. As stated on this forum before Glasgow Airport is crying out for direct air routes to major cities/hubs in mainland Europe. It lags behind Edinburgh in European connections these days. The current offerings are too few. Globespan biting the dust just compounds this problem. Will BAA GLA management now be forced into co-operating with Ryanair? Hope the Globespan crews find alternative employment but this will be difficult. BA may need crew next year if they themselves survive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pieter C. 5 Report post Posted December 22, 2009 2 767's recently had their C-checks with KLM at AMS: hope, KLM will ever see some money...(at least, I've some rare inside-hangar pictures now ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
