67,000 + 23,000 Passengers Stranded

[LaoPo]

Thousands stranded by XL collapse

The collapse of the UK's third largest package holiday group has left tens of thousands of Britons stranded abroad.

The decision to place XL Leisure Group into administration has also left thousands of staff facing the axe.

Chairman Phil Wyatt said he was "totally devastated" by the failure which has grounded XL's 21 planes. The company flies to about 50 destinations.

There are 67,000 stranded who booked directly with XL, and another 23,000 who booked via other companies.

The Civil Aviation Authority(CAA) also said the firm had 200,000 advance bookings.

More details here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7611639.stm

[Goshawk]

Nok used to lease this 737 from XL Air..

[Tafia]

Thousands stranded by XL collapse

The collapse of the UK's third largest package holiday group has left tens of thousands of Britons stranded abroad.

The decision to place XL Leisure Group into administration has also left thousands of staff facing the axe.

Chairman Phil Wyatt said he was "totally devastated" by the failure which has grounded XL's 21 planes. The company flies to about 50 destinations.

There are 67,000 stranded who booked directly with XL, and another 23,000 who booked via other companies.

The Civil Aviation Authority(CAA) also said the firm had 200,000 advance bookings.

More details here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7611639.stm

The Chairman was devastated !!

What about all those innocent people who had paid for their holidays to be told at the airport their devastating news that they wont be going and for many they wont get their cash back either!!!

The Company was still taking money from customers upto 12 hours before the announcement.......

Another legalised Robbery!!!

[LeungKen]

XL Holidays is/was West Ham United's shirt sponsor - I wonder where that leaves them, Shirtless ?

.

[lazeeboy]

Thousands stranded by XL collapse

The collapse of the UK's third largest package holiday group has left tens of thousands of Britons stranded abroad.

The decision to place XL Leisure Group into administration has also left thousands of staff facing the axe.

Chairman Phil Wyatt said he was "totally devastated" by the failure which has grounded XL's 21 planes. The company flies to about 50 destinations.

There are 67,000 stranded who booked directly with XL, and another 23,000 who booked via other companies.

The Civil Aviation Authority(CAA) also said the firm had 200,000 advance bookings.

More details here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7611639.stm

The Chairman was devastated !!

What about all those innocent people who had paid for their holidays to be told at the airport their devastating news that they wont be going and for many they wont get their cash back either!!!

The Company was still taking money from customers upto 12 hours before the announcement.......

Another legalised Robbery!!!

12 hours before the announcement..............id be pretty pissed off if that happened to me

[Tafia]

[

The Chairman was devastated !!

What about all those innocent people who had paid for their holidays to be told at the airport their devastating news that they wont be going and for many they wont get their cash back either!!!

The Company was still taking money from customers upto 12 hours before the announcement.......

Another legalised Robbery!!!

12 hours before the announcement..............id be pretty pissed off if that happened to me

As announced on the BBC News Friday

[LaoPo]

CFO's (Financial, responsible, Officers) should, in my opinion, be brought to Justice and if found guilty, imprisoned.

It's criminal behaviour to take money from people who worked hard for it, KNOWING that the company is going bust.

That's called stealing.

LaoPo

[Spee]

CFO's (Financial, responsible, Officers) should, in my opinion, be brought to Justice and if found guilty, imprisoned.

It's criminal behaviour to take money from people who worked hard for it, KNOWING that the company is going bust.

That's called stealing.

Yeah, no doubt. I like the chief exec's quote:

"So where many people have been making hay with high oil prices, this is the repercussions of that hay - 1,700 people potentially out of work today in the UK," he said.

If viewed on the contrary, this must mean that while oil prices were lower, the company and senior officers must have been the ones "making hay." Where are all those profits? Where is the accountability of the senior officers? It sounds like the last few weeks or months of operations have been little more than a Ponzi scheme.

[LaoPo]

CFO's (Financial, responsible, Officers) should, in my opinion, be brought to Justice and if found guilty, imprisoned.

It's criminal behaviour to take money from people who worked hard for it, KNOWING that the company is going bust.

That's called stealing.

Yeah, no doubt. I like the chief exec's quote:

"So where many people have been making hay with high oil prices, this is the repercussions of that hay - 1,700 people potentially out of work today in the UK," he said.

If viewed on the contrary, this must mean that while oil prices were lower, the company and senior officers must have been the ones "making hay." Where are all those profits? Where is the accountability of the senior officers? It sounds like the last few weeks or months of operations have been little more than a Ponzi scheme.

Exactly. That's the -HUGE- problem in the corporate world.

The guys on top always blame something, someone else or the oil prices...if they can't find anything else to blame for. It is NEVER their own fault...

The point is that there are numerous holidaygroups and airlines who DO make a profit and order new planes.

There are many successful companies but others fail, like XL Leisure Group and Alitalia.

Because they made mistakes.....BIG ones.

LaoPo

[nookiebear]

It was always a dodgy set-up from Day 1--------Grew too big,too fast...........then bang.

[ClaytonSeymour]

CFO's (Financial, responsible, Officers) should, in my opinion, be brought to Justice and if found guilty, imprisoned.

It's criminal behaviour to take money from people who worked hard for it, KNOWING that the company is going bust.

That's called stealing.

Yeah, no doubt. I like the chief exec's quote:

"So where many people have been making hay with high oil prices, this is the repercussions of that hay - 1,700 people potentially out of work today in the UK," he said.

If viewed on the contrary, this must mean that while oil prices were lower, the company and senior officers must have been the ones "making hay." Where are all those profits? Where is the accountability of the senior officers? It sounds like the last few weeks or months of operations have been little more than a Ponzi scheme.

Exactly. That's the -HUGE- problem in the corporate world.

The guys on top always blame something, someone else or the oil prices...if they can't find anything else to blame for. It is NEVER their own fault...

The point is that there are numerous holidaygroups and airlines who DO make a profit and order new planes.

There are many successful companies but others fail, like XL Leisure Group and Alitalia.

Because they made mistakes.....BIG ones.

LaoPo

For all their very apparent failings, you can't say that XL didn't order new aircraft; they had the youngest & most fuel efficient fleet in the UK.

[LaoPo]

CFO's (Financial, responsible, Officers) should, in my opinion, be brought to Justice and if found guilty, imprisoned.

It's criminal behaviour to take money from people who worked hard for it, KNOWING that the company is going bust.

That's called stealing.

Yeah, no doubt. I like the chief exec's quote:

"So where many people have been making hay with high oil prices, this is the repercussions of that hay - 1,700 people potentially out of work today in the UK," he said.

If viewed on the contrary, this must mean that while oil prices were lower, the company and senior officers must have been the ones "making hay." Where are all those profits? Where is the accountability of the senior officers? It sounds like the last few weeks or months of operations have been little more than a Ponzi scheme.

Exactly. That's the -HUGE- problem in the corporate world.

The guys on top always blame something, someone else or the oil prices...if they can't find anything else to blame for. It is NEVER their own fault...

The point is that there are numerous holidaygroups and airlines who DO make a profit and order new planes.

There are many successful companies but others fail, like XL Leisure Group and Alitalia.

Because they made mistakes.....BIG ones.

LaoPo

For all their very apparent failings, you can't say that XL didn't order new aircraft; they had the youngest & most fuel efficient fleet in the UK.

Sorry, I didn't know that.

LaoPo

[geriatrickid]

There is good news for some. Those that booked though covered tour operators will be assisted.

The following tour operators held Air Travel Organiser's Licenses (ATOL) and customers that purchased air holidays and flights from them will be ATOL protected. Full details are on the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) ATOL website (www.atol.org.uk):

The Really Great Holiday Company PLC - ATOL 3827

Trading as: Cruise City, Excel Holidays, The Florida Skytrain, Transatlantic Vacations, Travel City Direct and Travel City International

Kosmar Villa Holidays PLC - ATOL 1760 Trading as: Kosmar Holidays

Freedom Flights Limited - ATOL 5296 Trading as: Freedom Flights

Aspire Holidays Limited - ATOL 6536 Trading as: Aspire Holidays

Those that booked through the XL website or call cenetr to save money are Sh*t out of luck.

It's not an excuse, but you cannot only blame the management of XL. They were employees.

XL formerly was part of the Icelandic transport group Eimskipafelag Islands, but was spun off in a management buyout in 2006.Eimskipafelag Islands had provided a loan guarantee of €207-million to XL, but said claims against the guarantee would fall on a group of investors led by Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, owner of the West Ham football club.

Do you think the key investors were prepared to let the company close down so quickly and thereby lose their investment? They most likely wanted to get back as much money as possible. What would the shareholders in the investment group have done? Why they would have sued the investment management team for abandoning their investment had the backers acted sooner. My hunch is that Thor Bjorgolfsson and his father, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson have alot to answer for here as do the banks and investment funds that supported this operation.

There are alot of dirty hands in this fiasco, some of which involve the lenders and dream builders that spun the magic to get people to buy into this deal. My guess is that Enron syndrome took hold where people are blinded by the financial accounting but miss the big picture. (In case anyone forgets, several financial observers questioned Enron's results, but they were disregarded and shouted down by the greedy people that all wanted in on the cash cow.)

XL was helped on its merry way by loads of people that share some of the responsibility;

- Aircraft leasing companies that were content to lease the equipment despite having access to the company financials.

- Labour leaders and their political allies that would have put up a hue and cry had regulators acted to alert the public.

- Businessmen that would have put up a hue and cry about "government" interference had regulators alerted the public, claiming interference in the markets.

- Consumers that just wanted the cheapest possible tickets without considering the purchase decision. The rule of caveat emptor- buyer beware was ignored.

The problems at XL should have scared people way back in 2006 after KPMG resigned as auditors. There was a full 2 years for people to act, for regulators to intervene, for investors to clean the mess up, for the travel industry to speak out. Didn't happen. Why? greed? negligence? deceit? stupidity? Read the following rehash of past events and see why so many people are mixed up in this that the likelihood of justice for ttravellers won't happen.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle4748641.ece