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550 jobs lost at failed airline | |
(41 minutes later) | |
Administrators for collapsed airline Flyglobespan said they have had to make a large number of redundancies. | |
Out of the 650 workers at the Edinburgh-based firm, 550 are now without a job. | Out of the 650 workers at the Edinburgh-based firm, 550 are now without a job. |
Bruce Cartwright from administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said there was no choice other than to cease flights and make redundancies. | |
He said that everything was being done to ensure that 4,500 stranded holidaymakers would be brought home. | He said that everything was being done to ensure that 4,500 stranded holidaymakers would be brought home. |
All flights were cancelled after Flyglobespan's parent company, Globespan, entered administration on Wednesday at 1700 GMT. | |
Passengers are currently stranded in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Egypt. | Passengers are currently stranded in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Egypt. |
Bruce Cartwright of PricewaterhouseCoopers said they would endeavour to make sure that "nobody would be left stranded anywhere". | |
About 1,000 passengers who had booked package holidays and were currently abroad would be brought home under the Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (Atol) insurance arrangement scheme. | |
The remaining 3,500 stranded passengers will have to make their own way back to the UK using alternative airlines. | |
Bruce Cartwright is joint administrator of Globespan | |
Mr Cartwright said that in less than 24 hours good progress on repatriation had been made. | |
He thanked Virgin for stepping in to take home, free of charge, 60 cabin crew currently stuck in India. | |
The administrator added that he had spent most of the day with Globespan staff in Edinburgh. He said employees had acted with "great dignity". | |
Mr Cartwright said: "They have behaved incredibly well considering this has come so close to Christmas." | |
At a news conference in Edinburgh, he went on to explain that although the company's directors had not wanted to appear publicly they had offered their full co-operation. | |
He said he was asked on behalf of the directors to thank the Scottish public for supporting them over the last 35 years and to thank employees. | |
Mr Cartwright said: "They [the directors] did everything they could to achieve a more favourable outcome than they see today." | |
About £30m was owing to the Globespan group by the company holding its credit card transaction payments, according to Mr Cartwright. | |
He said that about half of the money paid by passengers could be re-paid. | |
A premium rate helpline for passengers who have booked flights only is now operational and can be contacted on 0871 271 9000. | A premium rate helpline for passengers who have booked flights only is now operational and can be contacted on 0871 271 9000. |
A second helpline for passengers who booked package holidays with the Flyglobespan tour operator is now operational and can be contacted on 0844 856 2585.(Calls cost 5p per minute from a landline, but may be considerably more using a mobile) | A second helpline for passengers who booked package holidays with the Flyglobespan tour operator is now operational and can be contacted on 0844 856 2585.(Calls cost 5p per minute from a landline, but may be considerably more using a mobile) |
Are you scheduled to fly with Flyglobespan? Are you stranded abroad? Do you work for them? Send us your comments using the form below. | Are you scheduled to fly with Flyglobespan? Are you stranded abroad? Do you work for them? Send us your comments using the form below. |
A selection of your comments may be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below. | A selection of your comments may be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below. |
The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide. Terms & Conditions | The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide. Terms & Conditions |