A very sad tale, and one that most of us in the travel industry had been predicting for months, in fact many were surprised at how long they lasted. The losers are the unpaid staff and the passengers yet to fly, credit card bookings may be protected by the Consumer Credit Act but as an Irish airline, where did they process the payments? If it wasn't in the UK, there is legal precedent to say the credit card companies have no liability to repay at all and everyone using a debit card is completely adrift if the money has already been taken.
The bizarre and worrying fact is less than four weeks ago this Government was encouraged to legislate to protect all passengers of scheduled airlines so that they would have the same protection as customers of ATOL holders. During the second reading of the Civil Aviation Bill, the government refused to extend the protection, if I was one of the customers out of pocket, I would demand an urgent explanation from my MP!