Inclusive Tour - General Thread

[Aviador]

Shares in Thomas Cook have fallen on the back of the unrest in Egypt. Big fallers on the FTSE included Thomas Cook, down 4.7%, British Airways shares have also fallen 2.6%.

 

[Aviador]

Does anyone know who is operating the Olympic Holidays flights?

 

[lbaspotter]

Does anyone know who is operating the Olympic Holidays flights?

The likes of Fly Hellas, Jet2.com, Pegasus, Cyprus Airways & Onur Air to name but a few.

 

[Aviador]

Just found out that Olympic Holidays flights will be operated by Australian-based charter carrier Strategic Airlines. The airline has also got seat allocations on Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomson Airways and Jet2.com.

Image: http://blog.seattlepi.com hosted on Flickr

 

[News Guru]

easyJet Holidays ‘pre-launch’ with Teletext

easyJet has launched its packaged holiday business, easyJet Holidays, through Teletext Holidays in an exclusive 'pre-launch' deal. The package deals will go on sale via Teletext and also via a dedicated call centre. EasyJet Holidays will launch its own website next month.

easyJet Holidays is a joint venture between the budget airline plus lowcostbeds.com. The holidays will be based around the 30 or so popular holiday destinations that easyJet flies to. The tie-up between the companies follows the relaunch of Teletext Holidays, which has shifted its sales channel away from analogue television to internet TV.

Nick Hughes, head of ancillary revenue at easyJet, said: ‘We are delighted that Teletext Holidays is the exclusive pre-launch partner for easyJet Holidays. This will provide customers exclusive access to an extensive holiday offering. We know that customers will enjoy the great value that easyJet Holidays offer as well as fully flexible, consumer protected holiday options.’

Source

 

[Aviador]

It has been reported elsewhere on Forums4airports that Fred Olsen has scrapped it's entire flying programme for 2011/12 because of the rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD)

 

[lbaspotter]

holidays 4 u have ceased trading

Holiday company holigays 4 u have gone into Administration meening about 12,000 holidaymakers are stranded abroad. The operator has departures from quite a few UK airports, operated by Turkish Airline, Onur Air.

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/ ... broad.html

 

[Aviador]

I'm not shocked at the news but it's sad for the employees and holiday makers stranded abroad. I do believe the company is protected by ABTA so passengers shouldn't have any problem returning home although it will be a very stressful time for all concerned.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Unfortunately, it's that time of year again.

Main holiday season and another substantial player goes ceases to trade, as we've seen in recent years.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]TUI to close UK airport information desks

Thomson and First Choice are due to close their information desks at UK airports from December, it has been unveiled.

The travel company’s director of customer services Carl Gissing told Travel Daily the move is part of its strategy to provide “modern, unique and expertly designed holiday experiences” through its online channels, with many customers now finding information on its website before heading to airports.

Its check-in desks will remain in airports and some desks will remain open specifically for cruise passengers (as reported by the Wales Air Forum), with a staff from ground handlers available to help customers. TUI said the changes would not affect its face to face customer service.

“We are committed to delivering excellent face to face customer service throughout the customer journey, especially at UK airports. Thomson and First Choice always strive to offer customers a wide variety of channels to book their holiday and manage their booking. A key part of our business strategy is offering modern, unique and expertly designed holiday experiences for our customers and moving towards more online based channels supports this strategy. For example, customers are now able to look at reviews of hotels, book excursions and upgrade their seats on our aircraft using the ‘MyThomson’ website – much of the information customers need is now at their fingertips before they even set off for the airport,” explained Gissing.[/textarea]

Full report at http://www.traveldailymedia.com/139101/ ... tion-desks

Another step in reducing the costs for these companies though despite the reassuring tone of the TUI spokesman I can't think that many customers will view this as an improvement in service.

Although I haven't used an IT charter holiday for a few years (used to use them all the time especially when our kids were young) one of the advantages was that there was a holiday company rep at the airport if there was a problem, something that doesn't apply with putting together your own holidays with, say, a low-cost airline and hotel booked separately.

 

[tleeds]

What amazes me is that Low Cost carriers still have some sort of Information Desk and yet the company you would have thought would keep them, has announced the removal of them!

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]TUI set to reveal sales growth

Thomson and First Choice parent TUI Travel will reveal how the package holiday market has fared over the summer when it updates on trading on Wednesday.

The group - Europe's biggest tour operator - said in May that summer sales were 13% ahead of last year as holidaymakers plotted getaways amid fears of another washout season in the UK.

Britain's recent heatwave came as an unexpected surprise and TUI will likely face questions over whether sales growth was dented in recent weeks. But low-cost airline easyJet defied concerns earlier this month that the hot weather hit last-minute getaways, saying almost three-quarters of its summer seats were booked.

Read more: http://www.expressandstar.com/business/ ... es-growth/[/textarea]

 

[News Guru]

City analysts expect to see further Thomas Cook cuts

City analysts are expecting a further round of cost savings to be announced by Thomas Cook this week as it reveals its full-year trading figures on Thursday.

According to reports, the City wants to see around £100 million of additional savings on top of the £400 million already announced.

Read more: http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/ ... +cuts.html

 

[News Guru]

Thomas Cook prepares for second phase of cost cutting

Thomas Cook has announced plans for a second wave of cost cutting and profit improvement to be achieved by 2018.

Calling it 'Wave 2' the company said it would be "of the magnitude as wave 1", which is due to come to completion in 2015.

Under wave 1, the number of Thomas Cook retail stores in the UK has already been reduced from 1,101 to 874, UK brands cut from 28 to just 10, and UK web penetration increased to 36%. The online target is 50% by 2015.


Outlining plans to further reduce its high street stores, Thomas Cook said a recent report by retail property consultants, CWM, confirmed that its store network is highly flexible, with "well over half" available for renegotiation over the next three years.

Read more: http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature. ... g&region=2

 

[User001]

not an airline as such, but, Lowcostholidays.com, who used 3rd party airlines to package together holidays has gone into administration.

This news won't see any particular airline face huge issues, but, it does have 27,000 people abroad currently.

The company blames Brexit and the weaker pound, as they take the money from customer at time of booking but don't pay suppliers until a few days/weeks before travel in the local currency, so, has been loosing money on bookings made before Brexit but traveling after Brexit.

 

[Aviador]

Very sad, not just for those who have booked holidays through them but also for the company workforce. I hope they can all found alternative employment soon.

This is what the company is saying on social media sites.

We deeply regret to announce that the lowcosttravelgroup (“LCTG”) ceased to trade on 15 July 2016, following exhaustive attempts by the group’s directors to rescue the group, which has been hampered by the recent and ongoing turbulent financial environment.
This notice applies to the following companies and brands:
1. Lowcosttravelgroup Ltd
2. lowcostholidays Spain S.L.
3. Hoteling. com part of Lowcostholidays Spain S.L.
4. Lowcostbeds. com A.G.
Smith & Williamson LLP, jointly with CMB Partners UK Ltd have been appointed as administrators over the UK group entities with effect from 15 July 2016.
On behalf of LCTG, the directors wish to profusely apologise for the inconvenience and distress that this will cause to our customers.
To view the full announcement please visit the lowcosttravelgroup website​

 

[Aviador]

"over 3 million passengers travelling with us this year"​

I didn't realise so many people used the company. That's a lot of unhappy customers.

 

[Ray Finkle]

That's quite a shock, I was browsing flights on that website last night and came close too booking with them for next year. I'm so glad that I paid an extra couple of hundred pounds to book direct with Thomson.

Their customers already in resort may now have to pay for their hotels and make a claim when they return.

http://www.lowcosttravelgroup.com/

 

[Aviador]

With the pound at it's lowest in years, holiday companies will be faced with higher exchange rates just as the travelling public are. It is likely we'll see more companies disappear over the coming months ahead.

 

[User001]

The collapse of lowcostholidays is going to hit many airports.

I don't think this is the last one we will see either. The longer the pound stays weak, the longer outbound tourism will suffer.

Delta have recently announced capacity cuts too, so, it's not just holiday companies.