XL in crisis talks

Stella66

Read this on timesonline and lm getting worried as l have a Disney holiday booked for December. Does anyone have more information on this.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article4641144.ece

hlhassall

There is a post below which may be of use to you.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1126579

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

just wondering why someone has merged stellas thread into this one...my post was about pure flights who was a provider who sold seats on various airlines, one being xl....pure flights has nothing to do with xl in crisis talk as all that happened was that pure flights seats were allocated to freedom flights to sell...the xl issue is a seperate one with most people most likely possibly booking directly on the xl site, therefore two companies....different problems

Crabman

Sorry about that donny

I've restored the original thread

meester

Ouch that's not good.

Cancelled flight are St Kitts, Antigua, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago!!!

Firstly not for the tourism industries of those countries, and secondly not for me, who very much enjoyed my £200 return trip flights to Grenada and was planning to book some more. It all comes down to fuel I guess, those are long-haul destinations and whereas the 2 hour flight to Marbella is very much sustainable the sheer fuel cost (which is unlikely to be as well hedged as larger organisations) at $120/barrel of getting to the Caribbean is enormous.

meester

More info:

Thousands of holidaymakers face a scramble for substitute seats after the transatlantic charter carrier XL Airways suddenly announced the cancellation of its entire Caribbean winter schedule.
The airline, which flew from Gatwick to St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados and Grenada, blames soaring oil costs for the decision and has warned travel agents that its Caribbean schedule will not be reinstated.
The evaporation of about 15% in the Caribbean could still lose out.
While XL is obliged to find alternative flights for those who have already booked with the airline, travellers who have yet to reserve Caribbean departures face rapidly dwindling supplies.
“These are incredibly busy routes and seats for Christmas and New Year departures are usually booked 11 months in advance,” said BA.
David Mortimer of the specialist operator Golden Caribbean, which puts up to 6,000 customers on XL flights each year, said it was unlikely any airline would fill the void by repeating the frequency of XL’s flights, although Virgin Atlantic now plans to put on three extra flights to Barbados of capacity to the Caribbean has started a rush for alternative flights. Thousands of travellers are turning to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to secure their winter breaks, but many tourists hoping to spend Christmas over the Christmas period.

However, they're still flying until the end of October, which is when I was planning to go... Seems quite risky to book though, especially if you have a contingent hotel booking.

Stella66

Xl company includes Travel City Direct, (which l booked my Xmas holiday to Disneyland Florida with), Freedom Flights, Aspire Holidays and Kosmar Villa holidays.

denise10_2

Stella66 wrote: »

Read this on timesonline and lm getting worried as l have a Disney holiday booked for December. Does anyone have more information on this.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article4641144.ece

I have looked at the link you posted for timesonline and have noted the information on XL flights. Can anyone tell me are they planing to cancel flights to Turkey this year,or is it just America? Any advice please.

Engadine

From Travelmole

XL Leisure Group focus of refinancing speculation


XL Leisure Group is at the centre of speculation over refinancing plans.

Weekend newspaper reports claimed that the UK’s third largest tour operating group was in urgent refinancing negotiations.

Financing associated with fuel hedging positions is understood to be at the centre of discussions.

A spokesman for XL, which includes XL Airways and operator brands such as Kosmar Holidays, Aspire, Travel City Direct and Freedom Flights, reportedly said it was not close to breaching the terms of its banking loans.

But he confirmed that the group was talking to a number of third parties as part of an ongoing financial process.

A statement said: "The group is engaged with a number of third parties as part of this process and has no further comment on the specifics of the refinancing.

“Whilst acknowledging it is a challenging market, the XL Leisure Group is experiencing strong trading with bookings for 2009 already outperforming last year.

"In addition, XL Airways has been the highest-performing airline at Gatwick and Manchester on punctuality during the month of July. With the addition of new aircraft this year XL will also be operating the youngest fleet of short haul aircraft in the UK."

One industry insider close to XL was quoted in today’s Daily Telegraph as saying the situation was “retrievable”, adding that the “consensus is that there is light at the end of the tunnel” for XL.

Engadine

denise10 wrote: »

I have looked at the link you posted for timesonline and have noted the information on XL flights. Can anyone tell me are they planing to cancel flights to Turkey this year,or is it just America? Any advice please.

XL has cancelled it's entire winter schedule to the Caribbean. No mention of cancelling and other flights. Meester has posted earlier on this thread regarding these cancellations

saintscouple

I'm sure we will be covered if XL goes tits-up, but to verify we booked flights and accommodation with Global Late Deals for departure on 1st October this year to Rhodes. The flights are with XL.

To date we have recieved our accommodation voucher, but not yet our flight tickets.

They are a member of ATOL, and as we have booked both travel and accommodation through them, this is classed as a 'package', thus we are ATOL protected.

Can someone please confirm?

Many Thanks