Further 175,000 FTI trips cancelled as package takeover talks fail
James ChappleA further 175,000 trips booked with failed European travel giant FTI Touristik have been cancelled after talks with competitors designed to safeguard bookings failed.
FTI’s administrators said despite "intensive negotiations with competitors", no solution was found to take over FTI’s outstanding package bookings. It means all FTI trips due to depart from Saturday 6 July onwards have now been cancelled.
The outcome affects all packages booked with FTI Touristik, as well as its BigXtra and 5vorFlug brands. All payments made by customers towards their trips, to date, are being protected by Germany’s travel security fund (DRSF).
FTI administrator Axel Bierbach said total existing travel bookings held with FTI in one form or another ran to "a high three-digit million" figure.
Bierbach said despite the DSRF being open to getting some passengers away without having to wait for refunds by working with one of FTI’s competitors, and despite initial "promising solutions", there wasn’t sufficient time to achieve "a convincing result for a takeover of the packages booked with FTI and BigXtra".
He added the decision to cancel the trips would give customers the "necessary planning security" and time before the start of the summer season to seek refunds and rebook their trips.
While the DSRF will cover deposits and advance payments made by package holidaymakers, customers who have booked individual, non-packaged services via FTI – such as flights, hotels and transfers – would not get refunds from the fund.
"We did not take the decision to cancel all trips lightly," Bierbach continued. "We know the uncertainty of those customers who wanted to start their holiday from 6 July has been very stressful over the past week and we would like to thank them for their patience.
"Nevertheless, for reasons of care, also for the FTI employees in Germany and in the destinations, we made a very conscious decision not to have all booked trips cancelled by FTI immediately after the insolvency application.
"The large number of bookings is also a significant economic factor for all of FTI’s long-standing contractual partners, above all for the hotels and transport companies in the destination countries."
Bierbach added: "One of the primary objectives of the provisional insolvency proceedings is to maintain business operations as far as possible, secure the assets and thus also create the best possible prospects for the employees to continue the business."
A takeover of packages ultimately proved unworkable for several reasons, said Bierbach, notably local FTI companies servicing hotels and transfers dropping out and hotels no longer feeling bound by agreements with FTI owing to its insolvency.
Solutions have been found for various aspects of the wider FTI Group, including a deal to secure the future of its around 230 travel agencies in Germany.
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