Tuesday 17 August 2010

Kiss Flights folds


Up to 70,000 travellers were facing disruption to their holiday plans after budget travel firm Kiss Flights collapsed last night. That was the story line in The Daily Telegraph.


The British-based company operated flights to Greece, Egypt, Turkey and the Canary Islands.


Kiss Flights was a charter airline operator originally trading under the name of Meridian Aviation UK Ltd. It was sold to Flight Options before ceasing trading on the 17th August 2010
The website was not working a while ago, however a message posted on owner Flight Options' website says "As of 1700hrs on 17 August the Flight Options group of companies have ceased trading. The Civil Aviation Authority have been informed and we are awaiting further advice on the situation. Please contact the CAA for a further update".

The latest operator's demise follows the recent collapses of Goldtrail Holidays and Sun4u. It is believed Kiss picked up a large number of bookings from the collapse of Goldtrail.

The Guardian has a headline today saying "Flight Options collapse hits 70,000 holidaymakersThird failure of UK travel company in a month affects more than 70,000 customers" -

"Holiday plans are being rearranged for more than 70,000 people after the Flight Options travel group ceased trading, the third UK company to do so in just over a month.

About 13,000 customers are already thought to be abroad, most having travelled with Kiss Flights, the largest company in the group. The others have bookings with the company into next month and beyond.Flight Options launched in 1995 as a small tour operator on various routes across the Mediterranean, and bought a string of travel firms."


On Monday 9th August it was reported on "ttg live" - Kiss thanks agents for support through insurance mix-up. "Kiss Flights has thanked agents for their support last week after a message was mistakenly sent out saying that insurance cover was withdrawn from the company.

Managing director Paul Moss said agents had been proactive in helping make it clear that the seat-only operator was not affected.

The mix-up happened on Friday when insurance underwriters IGI Insurance said it would not be issuing any more cover for Viking Airlines until it had re-evaluated whether Viking met the criteria for being given cover."

There are a lot of companies in the travel business facing problems this summer. If you have booked a holiday or are thinking of doing so consider very seriously taking out Financial Failure Travel Insurance from as little as £5 per person.


To find out more go to http://www.jml-insurance.co.uk/displayproduct.php?id=319&sec=8



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