UK. XL Leisure Group, the UK’s third-largest package holiday business, has collapsed, leaving tens of thousands of British travellers stranded abroad.
XL Leisure Group has been placed into administration and XL Airway’s 21 planes grounded. The airline flies to around 50 holiday destinations.
The news is a terrible blow to the travel industry – and to consumer confidence in it. One report said that 67,000 passengers who booked directly with XL have been stranded, plus another 23,000 who booked via other companies. The Civil Aviation Authority also said the firm had 200,000 advance bookings. Those who have already paid by debit card or by booking online are unlikely to get their money back. Capacity on the key Caribbean routes this Christmas will be severely impacted by XL’s failure, one leading travel agent told The Moodie Report today.
XL Chairman Phil Wyatt told reporters today: “Unfortunately the huge fuel price hike and the inability of the business to hedge all its fuel has increased our costs year-on-year by over US$80 million.”
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Rising oil prices sent the airline group into a tailspin |
A statement on the group’s website said: “The Joint Administrators cannot continue trading the business and therefore all flights operated by the Companies have been immediately cancelled and the aircraft grounded. Going forward, the Joint Administrators are unlikely to be able to trade the business or operate the aircraft.
“The Companies entered into Administration having suffered as a result of volatile fuel prices, the economic downturn, and were unable to obtain further funding.”
They include: XL Leisure Group Plc, XL Airways UK Limited, Excel Aviation Limited, Explorer House Limited, Aspire Holidays Limited, Freedom Flights Limited, Freedom Flights (Aviation) Limited, The Really Great Holiday Company plc, Medlife Hotels Limited, Travel City Flights Limited, and Kosmar Villa Holidays plc.
For details on alternative flight arrangements see www.xl.com
XL joins a sorry list of aviation-related businesses to fail in recent months, mainly due to the oil crisis. They include low-cost airline Zoom, Maxjet, Eos, Silverjet and Oasis Hong Kong Airlines.
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