KEY POINTS:
Up to 30 more airlines will go bankrupt before Christmas, the chief executive of British Airways warned yesterday, as the biggest rescue of stranded passengers in industry history began.
Willie Walsh said the scenes of chaos in which 85,000 passengers have been stranded around the world after the collapse of XL, Britain's third largest holiday company, would become a familiar sight as the travel industry struggled with soaring fuel costs and the global economic downturn.
"We are in the worst trading environment the industry has ever seen", said Walsh. "We have already seen 30 or so airlines go bust this year and it would be fair to expect a similar number of casualties worldwide over the next three to four months."
Walsh also announced up to 1400 redundancies at his own airline yesterday. Italian airline Alitalia was also on the brink of collapse yesterday.
Travel industry experts said smaller airlines and tour operators were most at risk and warned passengers to book in a way that ensured they got their money back if an airline went bankrupt.
British Airways said its programme of redundancies, which are for now voluntary rather than compulsory, was the final stage of a restructuring plan launched in 2005. The airline has unveiled a series of measures designed to counter a crippling rise in its jet fuel bills, expected to total £3 billion ($8.097 billion) this year, 50 per cent more than in 2007.
- INDEPENDENT
