RIP EXCEL...

I've just downloaded a song to listen to while I'm writing this post... Can you guess what it is?

It's Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust". It's a classic and appropriately accurate in these times. And no I'm not talking about the Lehman Brothers crisis, even though that's what my trusted advisor (ever since the Annual Caribbean Tourism Summit) Dr. Alan Greenspan is talking about. But let me get back on track here, we're talking about tourism on this blog, and I'm talking about Excel Airways in this particular post.

Of course this is not even mildly a joke, especially for the 85,000 passengers still on holiday or the 240,000 more that have either used Excel or one of its various subsidiaries to book a holiday. It's also a potentially dire situation for the 1,700 staff that have lost their jobs. But let's talk about us right now, it's a particularly serious situation for the Caribbean market. Excel's charter flights were a low cost alternative to reaching the West Indies. So I'm going to state the obvious. The closure of such an airline will result in less individuals from the UK (one of our larger markets) visiting the British West Indies. So what happened? Here's what their website has to say:

"On 12 September 2008, Alastair Beveridge, Nick Cropper, Simon Appell and Stuart Mackellar were appointed as Joint Administrators of the Companies by the Court. The Companies entered into Administration having suffered as a result of volatile fuel prices, the economic downturn, and were unable to obtain further funding. The Joint Administrators cannot continue trading the business and therefore all flights operated by the Companies have been immediately cancelled and the aircraft grounded. Going forward, the Joint Administrators are unlikely to be able to trade the business or operate the aircraft. All passengers who have yet to commence their travel should make alternative arrangements."

I was fortunate enough to attend a family function the other evening to meet family members who were visiting from the England and guess which airline they used? That's right, Excel Airways. As of Friday, they weren't too sure how and when they would return to the UK, but I understand that their ticket will be honoured and all stranded passengers are returning home with Virgin Airways - Richard Branson saves the day! However, this wasn't the most outrageous story that I had heard:

"On Thursday night XL Airways flight JN1121 pushed back from the terminal at Sanford International, the Orlando airport that is the gateway to Florida for thousands of British holidaymakers every year. For the 266 passengers on board it was the end of a late summer break - two weeks spent basking on the beach or squealing with delight on the rides at Disneyland. The thrills weren’t over just yet. As the aircraft prepared to taxi, two police cars raced up, lights flashing. The plane stopped, then eased back to its stand. The passengers were told to get off. 'We went backwards about 150 feet, stopped and got a message from the captain that there had been a bit of a problem,' one passenger told a local television news crew. What the holidaymakers didn’t know was that XL Leisure Group, the airline’s owner, had run out of money. As they kicked their heels in the terminal, a High Court judge was, in the early hours of the morning UK time, approving the appointment of an administrator for the company. XL executives had tried to time the appointment so its planes would be airborne and heading home before they were seized by creditors. Unfortunately, according to sources at Gatwick, cabin crew on the Florida flight got wind of the impending collapse and inadvertently mentioned it to airport staff. When the whispers percolated up to airport managers they were alarmed. XL owed them money for handling fees. Take-off was stopped and the plane impounded". Ouch!

There's only one way to end a story such as this. I'm sorry Excel. Times are tough and you are the weakest link - goodbye!