Thousands stranded after Flyglobespan goes out of business

Flyglobespan, Scotland’s biggest airline, has become the latest airline to go bust. The airline made the announcement yesterday, canceling all of its flights and firing all 800 of its employees.

The workers got a bad deal getting fired just before Christmas, but at least they get to suffer at home, unlike the more than 4,500 passengers left stranded in foreign countries.

The company claims it’s contacting everyone affected, but the BBC didn’t have trouble finding passengers and even employees who hadn’t heard anything official about the closure. One senior cabin crew member learned he lost his job through Facebook.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority is working to repatriate 1,100 travelers who were stranded as part of a flyglobespan package holiday, but another 3,400 passengers who booked directly through flyglobespan.com have to make their own way back. easyJet and Ryanair have offered cut-rate “rescue fares” and passengers should check their travel insurance to see if their repatriation is covered.

There’s also a helpline at 0871 271 9000.

Last year an Irish bookie gave Flyglobespan 5:1 odds at being the next airline to go under. Skyeurope, also at 5:1 odds, beat it out when it failed on August 31 of this year.
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Baggage handler punches a $2 Million hole in a Boeing 737

A baggage handler at Glasgow airport in the UK made a very expensive mistake when the truck he was driving ripped a 5 foot hole in a parked plane. The Boeing 757 operated by Flyeglobespan was being prepared for a flight to Alicante, Spain when the accident happened.

Passengers were told that they would have to transfer to a different plane due to “aircraft damage”. Amazingly, the passengers were on their way to their destination in under 2 hours.

The aircraft will be out of service for several weeks so aviation engineers can examine the damage and perform repairs on the structure. When damage like this occurs, all kinds of critical flight systems could be damaged, and depending on the speed of the impact, the repair may involve much more than just patching a hole.

The baggage handler worked for Alba Ground Handling and the source article says he has been “sacked”. Accidents like this are fairly common, and baggage handlers are instructed to always keep a safe distance from the plane they are working on, but in the chaos of getting aircraft ready for a quick turnaround, accidents do happen.

Flyglobespan is a Scottish low cost carrier with flights from several UK airports to the US, Canada and the European mainland. The have an all Boeing fleet of 15 planes, and are expanding rapidly. They are also one of the airlines with an order in place for the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.