Administrator for FTI Touristik cancels 175,000 holidays

By Lisa James
17/06/2024
Home » Administrator for FTI Touristik cancels 175,000 holidays

FTI Touristik GmbH is to cancel all trips departing on and after 6 July after being ‘unable to find a solution’ for customers who have booked holidays.

Administrator Axel Bierbach put the total volume of existing travel bookings at a ‘high three-digit million figure’. In total, FTI will now cancel around 175,000 booked package holidays.

All package tours and certain individual services that customers have booked for departures from 6 July 2024 onwards through insolvent companies FTI Touristik GmbH and BigXtra Touristik GmbH as well as via the 5vorFlug sales brand are affected.

Europe’s third-biggest operator filed for insolvency on 3 June and three days later the insolvency administrator said he was ‘exploring possibilities’ for the sale of the business. TUI Group said on 7 June it was supporting affected customers and hoteliers.

In an update on Friday afternoon, Axel said: “In close cooperation with FTI and the German Travel Security Fund (DRSF), we have worked very hard over the past ten days to find a good solution in the interests of FTI’s customers and partners.

“We did everything to make package holidays, that have already been booked, possible after all. The DRSF would have been prepared to settle existing refund claims in cooperation with one or more acquiring competitors. This would have allowed holidaymakers with a small budget to start their trips without having to wait for a refund.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to find such a solution despite the great efforts of all those involved.

“In intensive negotiations with various competitors, we initially saw promising solutions. In the short time available, however, we were unable to achieve a convincing result for a takeover of the package holidays booked with FTI and BigXtra.”

He said many service partners in destinations were no longer available and many hotels ‘no longer felt bound by agreements with the company’.

“In the past few days, a large number of local FTI companies that take care of hotels and transfers in the holiday destinations have dropped out, meaning that it would no longer have been possible to run the package holidays as originally planned,” he said.

The cancellation of all package tours give FTI’s travel agency partners the opportunity to offer their customers alternatives. All deposits made and advance payments will be refunded by the DRSF.

The administrator said he is weighing up all options for the future of FTI GROUP subsidiaries.

“We are continuing to explore all reorganisation options within the FTI GROUP and are currently in numerous discussions,” he said.

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