I feel so sorry for the staff who tried to do their best despite the "upper floor" rantings. It's particularly tough at this time of year as there are too few positions out there being chased after by too many good people.
Get to the jobcentre now and start the ball rolling. The odds are they will not find you a job but at least you may get some benefits to tide you over.

Best of luck to all.

A friend of mine assures me that FlyGlobespan are owed GBP 36.4m of credit card payments by E clear.

Can this be true? If so, it is a scandal.

"Therein lies the huge problem facing an industry that eats cash at an alarming rate, chasing the slimest of margins.

Until the travelling public cease thinking that it's reasonable to pay less to fly to Spain than the taxi fare to the aiport there'll be more GSMs

So sorry for the people affected, specially you Littleblue. Good luck"

Its not that I expect the fare should be that low, quite the opposite. However for me when flying Ryanair it has been more of a 'why not' trip, prompted by the ridiculously low fare, a flight I would not have taken had it cost more. Having flew with them numerous occasions, all around the £10 mark, I'm reluctant to pay more with them. Why? Because the next day there could be a sale on offering the same seat at 1p.

It's not that I find a higher fare unreasonable, and when necessary will happily pay it on other airlines. Take Globespan for example, covering bucket and spade routes. Had the trip in question been a week long holiday, yes I would have paid far more than £89. But an overnight in Paris that is simply a cheap overnight - no.

I think Ryanair have set themselves up in a manner where customers will not accept high fares, as they've came to except such low fares. It's nothing to do with what's reasonable or acceptable, but simply buying when the price is right.

This number does not surprise me at all. What would surprise me is if E-Clear is really holding the funds in a designated account on behalf of Globespan as they should.

BarbiesBoyfriend

Absolutely possible. That is how clearing services work. You wont know if its a scandal unless the detail of the contract is known.

Sorry to all old friends
 

As a former Pilot that was forced to leave in October I am sorry for all of you left.
Not the best of jobmarkets this time of the year, but hopefully next year it will turn around again.
And so sad the day after the Dreamliner made the first flight.

Good luck all ex GSM crews

Parcelpuppy wrote:
Diabolous
My memory is not hazy at all. I still have the transcripts from the litigation, documentation from MP's and the addresses of the 258 creditors owed 40 million USD and all of us who were ex Cougar employees cheated by the people who went on to form Globespan.The £128,000 paid for the AOC by the new management was a steal.Those ex Cougar staff that went on to start off Flyglobespan were all part of the scam.Dont believe that TD and all of the other directors were not complicit.

Perhaps then it is slightly skewed. You implied that Flyglobespan were started from the ashes of Cougar Leasing Ltd. This is not true GSM started operations in November 2002 when Cougar were still operating as a cargo airline (they ceased pax in oct 2002). Cougar (GCR) did not cease operations until summer 2003 and did not sell the AOC to Flyglobespan until early 2004. TD was also never a director at GCR and I believe that most of the old GCR directors had left GSM by the end of GSM possibly with the exception of one DH.

The demise of GSM may well have been on the cards for some time and there are many factors involved in the failure of any business.

To all the FGS crew and employees all the best, what a brutal time of year to receive such lousy news!

MPA thanks
 

After a few years on a bi annual trip to the Falklands, GSM were clearly the best operator the MOD have chartered on this route.

Sorry to hear the news guys. Gutted for you at this time of year especially.:(

Onwards and upwards, eh??
We will all be ok. We are the same as all of the rest of the airline staff out there........AMAZING.
What doesn't kill us can only make us stronger. And respect to RG for standing up in front of us this morning to apologise...ok, only words, but we didn't see TD doing the same??

Sad times...
 

As wife of one of the captains, i've travelled with GSM numerous times and have got to know many of the flight deck, cabin crew and engineers.

What sad news this is for such a fantastic bunch of people, and that's every one of you without exception! You guys have worked so hard to pull it all together in the recently uncertain environment, and I applaud you all.

Best of luck for the future to all the guys and girls on the front line, the spanners, the flight deck and not forgetting our two lovely lady pilots!

J and the Captain

"Glamour takes a nose-dive!" says the headline. Not in today's paper, but the dateline is November 9 1968, and there are the sad faces of the LHR check-in girls, sitting on the counter with BRITISH EAGLE emblazoned above them. "It nearly broke my heart," said 24-year old stewardess Miss Jackie Tingrell, as she sadly handed in her plum-coloured uniform.

History went on to repeat itself, time and again, of course: Court Line, Laker, Dan-Air, and Air Europe are the ones that immediately spring to mind, and now Globespan.

I note the snowploughs positioned behind the two parked 737s at Glasgow. Is that really necessary in this day and age?

I wish the staff all the very best in their search for new employment.

To the employees I say best of luck.To the poison dwarf I say what goes around comes around.

They done that with zoom, it dose look awful

Which carrier is bringing folk back from Tenerife and Faro tonight ?

Easyjet and Ryanair- don't you watch the news?

Sympathies to all the staff affected. I know how upsetting and traumatic it must be, and what a rotten time for it to happen. Good luck to you all- I hope you can re-enter the profession soon. I hope 2010 brings the recovery that will see full employment again.

Spotter alert! Check your teletext but my guess would be Globespan pax coming back on other carriers ie Easy, Ryanair etc. I didn't think there was a special airlift planned for stranded pax but things could have chnaged in the last few hours.

Sorry about the news, same "overnight" closure happend to the company i was working for a while back.

Thoughts go out to the staff and familys.

Haven't had time to read right through, but as one who has spent time with his passengers bearing bad news about their tickets, this snippet from the Beeb stood out.


I'd certainly make it my business to find out where the money was, and indeed, who owned the company that was holding it.


BBC News - Flyglobespan collapse strands thousands of passengers

let me add my best wishes to all at Globespan. Many of us have had it happen, and it is a dreadful experience!
However, we are a tenacious bunch in this profession, stay positive, look after your families, you will survive to fight another day!
Good Luck!