XL holidays about to go tits up

[Barrel of Fun]

I want to go on holiday with you

Good to hear there is a man of my own ideals.

You are welcome along any time, although I think the next holiday is camping in Essex

You have a totally different perception of resorts to me then as this is the sort of thing I mean, which is not anything like you describe

Hotels Resorts in Far East - XO Private – The Luxury Travel Collection

They do look nice, but I just find it much more exciting going somewhere that has not been specifically built for the tourist and without a daily fresh supply of towels or within spitting distance of other tourists. Even more exciting going somewhere when you do not have concrete plans after the first day or two.

I would not want to stay in the same place for two or three weeks.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Oh dear. The father of a good friend is/was a pilot for XL. Moved there from BA as they were a proper airline and nice to work for.

Whilst I have sympathy for the holidaymakers, it is much worse for those who will be out of a job.

Qualified pilots will never be out of a job for long.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Qualified pilots will never be out of a job for long.

Very true. He joined XL from BA as the major airlines tend to be very impersonal and staff morale is quite low. Not as low as XL now though! The admin staff, cabin crew etc. etc. are probably going to struggle.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Very true. He joined XL from BA as the major airlines tend to be very impersonal and staff morale is quite low. Not as low as XL now though! The admin staff, cabin crew etc. etc. are probably going to struggle.

Still a lot of airlines around tho. Better to hire a fully-qualified hostie for example than pay for one to go through the training course with no guarantee of success at the other end. Suspect most of the staff will be OK, seeing as how XL was based in Crawley, and Gatwick is the major bucket'n'spade airport in the UK. Hope so, anyways.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Doubtless fixtures but...

West Ham end shirt sponsor deal
By Simon Austin



XL signed a three-year deal with West Ham last February
West Ham have ended their sponsorship deal with collapsed travel firm XL Holidays and will play at West Brom on Saturday in an unbranded kit.

The Hammers have suspended all sales of replica shirts and hope to remove all branding from their Upton Park ground.

West Brom do not have a shirt sponsor, so Saturday's Premier League match will see both sides in plain strips.

The Hammers could face a £5m shortfall after XL went into administration on Friday, BBC Sport understands.

It is understood West Ham have only received £2.5m from a three-year deal with the Sussex-based travel company.

A £7.5m deal, worth £2.5m a year, was signed in February 2007 but only one year of the contract has been paid so far.

Hammers chairman Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson is also one of the guarantors of a 207 million Euros (£163m) bank loan given to XL.

A West Ham statement said: "In light of the circumstances surrounding the company, West Ham United have taken the decision to immediately terminate their relationship with XL Holidays.

"In view of this, the club have suspended all sales of replica shirts until further notice. This will also involve in due course the removal of XL Holidays branding from all West Ham United platforms."

606: DEBATE
The club could do a lot worse than get a local charity as their shirt sponsor

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

"West Ham United will be seeking further talks with the administrators at the earliest opportunity to clarify the situation regarding the company," added the statement.

"As stated, our sincere sympathies are with those XL Holidays customers and staff directly affected by today's news."

Meanwhile, it emerged that Gudmundsson and his son Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson, who is also a billionaire, became guarantors of the huge bank loan on Wednesday.

The guarantee was originally provided by Icelandic shipping company Eimskip, in which Gudmundsson has an interest.

West Ham will now start the search for another shirt sponsor and wait, along with XL's other creditors, to see what administrator Kroll does with the company.

A contingency plan had been built into the deal in the event of the club being relegated, with the annual payment being reduced from £2.5m if the Hammers did drop down a division.

 

[franks brother]

love that quote when people come on the news with regards to anything that's gone wrong in this country:

lost my job - government should do more
football team lost - government should do more
price of milk gone up - government should do more
monkey at london zoo shat on my face - government should do more

f***ing hell if you were stupid enough to book a holiday with a company stupid enough to sponsor west ham then what do you expect

 

[Lady Whistledown]

This won't be the last travel company to go tits up, I'm sure of that.

I used to work in the business before I signed up for my current position, and every single time the financial situation looked a bit ropey, the tour operators and airlines started to feel it, and would start laying people off.

During the last recession of the early 90s, a number of operators went bust- I was at school then but I remember we'd booked a school trip to the south of France, only for the tour operator to call in the receivers about a month before we were due to depart.

While the impact of 9/11 on consumer confidence and oil prices caused various airlines to go to the wall.

The situation with XL will make things even worse, as holidaymakers will now think if it can happen to a company that size, their money isn't safe anywhere, and bookings will slow further still, meaning the whole industry will suffer. That, combined with difficult trading conditions anyway, and humungous oil prices, suggest it's going to be a pretty nervous time for a number of companies over the next year or so.

 

[bhadeb]

My sister in law was due to go with them next week and by nephew and his family are in florida and they went with them - apparently they were still taking bookings at midnight on thursday - awful all round really

 

[bhaexpress]

Qualified pilots will never be out of a job for long.

Not always true, having worked for an airline for a long time they tend to have to work overseas. Also, it depends what aircraft they are qualified to fly, most airlines prefer not to employ people they have to spend a lot of money retraining.

Not sure what XL flt but I think it's 737s and 757s. there are plenty on airlines using the 737 but the 757s are starting to vanish as the 777 offers better economy, it ceased production a few years back.

 

[Cian]

Not always true, having worked for an airline for a long time they tend to have to work overseas. Also, it depends what aircraft they are qualified to fly, most airlines prefer not to employ people they have to spend a lot of money retraining.

Not sure what XL flt but I think it's 737s and 757s. there are plenty on airlines using the 737 but the 757s are starting to vanish as the 777 offers better economy, it ceased production a few years back.

737s, 767s.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Alitalia are apparently on the brink of going tits up too, despite the best efforts of the Italian government to save the company.

 

[Midikilledmydog]

[[B]QUOTE=franks brother;2579311]love that quote when people come on the news with regards to anything that's gone wrong in this country:

lost my job - government should do more
football team lost - government should do more
price of milk gone up - government should do more
monkey at london zoo shat on my face - government should do more

f***ing hell if you were stupid enough to book a holiday with a company stupid enough to sponsor west ham then what do you expect

[/QUOTE][/B]

On this occasion they certainly should of done more and could easily of solved it if Brown had any bollocks

'We are the government and where commandeering these planes, where paying for the fuel and the wages of the crews and any other essential costs, where taking care of all insurance issues and where flying them out empty to bring stranded citzens back home to their defined schedule. Those people have worked hard all year, paid their taxes, paid for their holidays including a flight home at a speciffic time and we will make sure they get it. We will ensure all who have pre booked will get a full refund and then put measures in place to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again'

 

[Cian]

Don't think that the ICAO rules can be unilaterally over-ruled by one country, to be honest...

As goes putting measures in place to prevent private businesses going to the wall, it would both be anticompetitive and against EU rules for them to do so - why is why the Italian government is basically having to let ITS OWN airline go to the wall at the moment.