Kiss Flights has collapsed, leaving 70,000 holidaymakers with their plans in tatters.
Budget airline, Kiss Flights, which flies to Greece, Egypt, Turkey and the Canary Islands, went into administration last night at 5pm.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that up to 60,000 customers have booked holidays with Kiss Flights and 13,000 tourist are already abroad.
Luckily for the thousands of holidaymakers affected by the collapse of the travel firm, Kiss Flights’ operations were financially protected by the CAA-run Atol (Air Travel Operators Licensing) scheme.
This means that Kiss Flights customers who already on holiday can complete their trips and anyone with a booking can apply to the CAA for compensation.
A CAA spokesman said: “We’ve arranged for about 1,500 Kiss Flights-booked people to get away on flights to the Mediterranean today.
“People due to fly after 6pm today can either seek compensation or go to travel agents and see if they can get an alternative flight.”
“Those already abroad are carrying on with their holidays and we should be able to get them back on their planned flight without having to charter flights.”
Kiss Flights folded when its owner, Flight Options, ceased trading on Tuesday night.
Flight Options chief executive Gary Ash said in a statement:
“Over the past nine months we have been fighting in a very difficult travel market,” he said.
“The effect of the volcanic ash was devastating.
“When the banks were in trouble the government bailed them out, but when the tour operators had to cope with the enforced closure of the skies and the expensive cost of repatriation the government did not help.
“On top of poor yields and very late booking trends, our fate was sealed by very poor forward sales.”
Kiss Flights is the latest travel film to go bust in a year that has seen the collapse of both Goldtrail Holidays and Sun4U.
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Goldtrail Holidays collapse – advice for customers
Sun4U collapse brings chaos to thousands
