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Largest Scottish airline Flyglobespan goes bust - 4,500 stuck

by mudricky | December 17, 2009 at 01:40 am

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It isn't great news for anyone in the UK who wants, or needs to travel overseas over the coming days and weeks as Scotland's largest airline Flyglobespan goes into administration.

British Airways have failed in extra talks with cabin staff to call off a planned strike of 12 days during Christmas after discussions with union leaders failed and baggage handlers have warned of strikes at Heathrow over Christmas.

The demise of Flyglobespan has left 4,500 passengers stranded abroad this morning in places like Spain and Greece.

But in the meantime Ryanair and EasyJet are offering 'rescue' fares between Flyglobespan destinations and Glasgow, Prestwick and Edinburgh.

An operation is under way to fly back to the UK thousands of people left stranded after Flyglobespan, Scotland's biggest airline, collapsed.
Its parent company, Globespan, entered administration on Wednesday, with all flights cancelled and 800 jobs going.

About 4,500 passengers are stranded - mostly in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Egypt. The Civil Aviation Authority will be repatriating about 1,100.

Last year the airline carried more than 1.5m passengers, on 12,000 flights.

It operated mainly from Edinburgh, Glasgow Prestwick and Aberdeen, but also flew transatlantic services from other UK cities including Gatwick and Belfast.

It also flew charter flights from Manchester to Egypt.

Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers said Edinburgh-based Globespan was contacting all the passengers booked with or travelling with the airline.

One senior cabin crew member for Flyglobespan told the BBC he had not yet been contacted by the company.

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mudricky

at 08:28 on December 17th, 2009

UPDATE: British Airways cabin crew strike illegal, court rules

A strike by British Airways cabin crew planned for Christmas has been declared illegal in a High Court ruling.

The court agreed with BA that the cabin crew's union, Unite, had not correctly balloted its members on the strike action.

The injunction means that the 12-day strike cannot now go ahead.

Unite called it "a disgraceful day for democracy" and vowed to hold a fresh ballot of cabin crew if the dispute with BA was not resolved.

British Airways said the decision would be welcomed by "hundreds of thousands of families in the UK and around the world".