What is the deal with buying spare capacity?

Does the CAA say "this is the price we will pay for your spare seats and that is that?"
or are the other airlines allowed to charge what they like.

In addition are other UK airlines mandated by the ATOL scheme to allow passengers to travel on their empty seats? Always been wondering this...

firstly as a (now) former employee of xl let me thank everyone for their good wishes.
only really got one thing to say about it all and that's.... DAMN!
still stuck for words, only thing i can think of is getting that cv out there. anyone know of ops/crewing jobs going?:E anyways, best of luck to everyone, pilots/cabin/techies/res people... you were all great:D

"wrong! - the ATOL protection funds are made up from bonds placed by the tour operators or a £1 per pax collected fee

Quote:
"Unfortunately, customers who booked either through xl.com or xl call centres are not ATOL protected. Consequently, you will be ineligible for a refund from ATOL in respect of your flight. The CAA will be able to make arrangements for your return journey. As you fall into an unprotected category of customers you will be invoiced a fee on your return to the UK."

Still got me headset but its about to cost me £3400 wow most expensive headset in history.

Crocodile tears from that :mad:he should be shot and pi##ed on.
He was heard last week when pi##ed that "if XL UK goes bust i still have 2 other airlines" How right you were Phil....Splitting them up before the bump so you could still play the big man.(albeit in you platform shoes lol). Your ego is the reason we are all in the sh@t with your management buyout ,your pockets were never deep enough and it was not the price of fuel which you are hideing behind.

Enjoy your Aston Martin and if it develops a scratch and looses its windows anytime soon please pay for the repairs out of the money you owe me.

Enjoy your Bently and if it develops a scratch and looses its windows anytime soon please pay for the repairs out of the money you owe me.

Enjoy your Range Rover Sport and if it develops a scratch and looses its windows anytime soon please pay for the repairs out of the money you owe me.

Very dramatic wearing a black tie for the press you should be happy you got away with it ,you and all your buddies, ploughing the losses in to XL UK from XL Germany and France. Now you cant start with a fresh balance sheet until you f:mad:k it all up AGAIN.

A lot of (understandable) anger has been directed at the journalists covering this story since it broke at the start of the month, but I agree that the real anger should be directed at the managers of the business who appear to have been throwing cash around like confetti.

It's a very true statement that the first companies to go to the wall have the shiniest cars in the directors spaces.

You only have to look at the massive advertising campaign (prompted by the need to rebrand Excel after an embarrassing 2006 summer) to see that XL were punching way over their weight.

I think we were all taken in by it to some extent, but I for one will pay a lot more attention to the behaviour of my CEO / CFO in the future.

Commiserations again to all affected,

KT

A point that puzzles me, according to a well known aviation fleet listing site, half of XL Germany's fleet is leased from XL UK, with one being sun-leased to XL France.
If that is the case and the administrator gets the XL UK assets back both those companies may have a problem

It is normal to insert a Trust Company in leases to guard against this, although for a simple transaction within a group they maybe didn't go to the effort and expense of doing so.

This is principally done to guard airlines against the risk of the aircraft leasing company going bust and the airline overnight losing ther key assets. If you look at the ownership papers you will often see reference to "XYZ Trust Co".

Rubbish. The Icelandic company didn't employ them therefore isn't responsible.

The newspapers & broadcast media are heavy on passenger stories and, of course, I sympathise with them. Just wanted to say that, as SLF flying up to 100K p.a., my thoughts go out to XL staff who are being not just inconvenienced, but perhaps facing redundancy. Hang in there, folks; some of us see beyond the headlines.

Magnus.

Just wondering how the stranded crews are getting home. Any news?

Wrong - still entitled to take your children out of school for 10 school days per year for a family holiday.

Best wishes for the future to all at XL

XL - a message to all
 

Firstly, I'll get the unfortunate truth out of the way quickly: I'm a journo BUT can I also say how disgusted I've been by the behaviour of some in my profession today - and also how unbalanced I feel the reporting has been.

I want to wish EVERYONE connected with XL - and any other ailing airline - all the best, be they pilots, cc, cleaners, ground staff: whatever. We've all got bills to pay at the end of the day. Chaps and Ladies, I REALLY do feel for you at this time.

I do have a vested interest... A friend of mine (only a young 'un here - he's 27) recently left the RAF to go commercial due to being threatened with postings here there and everywhere AND he was about to marry. He did his training in Phoenix, at the innevitable cost and since joined XL. I, and all his mates, were and are absolutely proud as punch when he got the job.

Anyways, he was recently posted up to MAN from LGW - something he liked being from Yorks originally - and was buying a home there. His new wife got a job up here too. Now this. It's absolutely horrible and I feel so sorry for him, as I do for all involved.

Anyway, someone from the Mirror rang me today (how they got my name I will never, ever know - an old "pal" must have tipped them off that I'm in the gameand might be newspaper sympathetic) to offer me CASH for the full SP on my mate's plight. Fhttp://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/censored.gifing disgusting.

So... From at least one Yorks based Journo to the rest of you: good luck. I love flying and can't tell you how much I admire the work of aviators.

http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gifhttp://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gifhttp://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

I was looking at booking a last-minute holiday with Monarch LTN-ACE on Wednesday. Flights quoted at £510 for two people.
On Thursday evening the price had increased to over £900!
This massive increase looks unusual to me - did someone in Monarch know what was going on at XL? If the person who leaked the information was a Director of XL, he/she may have committed fraud.

Completely and utterly untrue as to EU worker rights.

what a real shame, hope the XL family find work very soon.

btw freebird and skyeurope now can be added to the list :(

XL The Dream Has Ended!!!
 

As an Ex-Employee of XL, and a very recent one at that, i wish all the Employees of XL the best for the future, it was a good ride and all involved were professional to the end.

Hope your plans become fruitful......:)

Just incase anyone is stuck
 

I just had this email drop into my inbox and though I would post incase anyone is stuck.

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not connected in anyway with Flybe - just thought it may be of use to some fellow ppruners.

'Flybe Rescue Package for Stranded XL customers

12 September 2008

Flybe, Europe’s biggest and most successful regional airline is stepping in to offer stranded XL passengers a flight home after the collapse of the tour operator this morning.
Following the announcement that XL Group has suspended all of its operations, Flybe will offer those passengers stranded at their destinations, a special rescue fee of €90 for a flight back to the UK.

Flybe has made this offer available to any XL passenger due to travel inbound to the UK from Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Palma during the next seven days (offer available until 23:59 Saturday 20 September).

To claim the €90 rescue package, passengers should call Flybe customer services on the numbers listed below. Passengers must provide the agent with their XL booking reference number and present their XL booking confirmation at check as further proof of booking.

Additionally, passengers flying with Flybe to connect with an XL flight who are now making alternative arrangements for travel, may change their itinerary upon payment only of a normal change fee of £30.

Flybe call centre from Europe: 0044 1392 268500

Flybe call centre from the UK: 0871 700 2000'

1ZA

That's very nice of FlyBE (the price). No doubt there are thousands of people worried sick.

As for the employment law palaver earlier, the only thing that the UK opted out of was the employee protections as far as working hours per week are concerned in that you have to sign a waiver to specifically opt out of the working hours directive. If you do NOT opt out, you are not legally allowed to work more than 42 hours a week.

S.

just had a call from work, hellenic 747-200 and a congo 767-200 are operating rescue flights tonight.

So, is Mr Wyatt involved in Kiss Air ??