FTI touristik collapse cancels trips for 175,000 customers
The German travel agency FTI Touristik has gone bankrupt, and all trips planned from July 6th will be canceled, reports "Rzeczpospolita," citing the travel industry portal Reise vor-9. The affected customers of the agency number up to 175,000.
4:43 PM EDT, June 18, 2024
According to "Rzeczpospolita," FTI's insolvency administrator, Axel Bierbach, announced that all trips planned from July 6th are canceled. Previously, this decision only concerned trips planned up to and including July 5th. The company hoped that in cooperation with other travel agencies, vacations could be arranged for about 175,000 people.
The value of the trips is estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros
Although the exact value of these trips was not disclosed, it is known to be in the hundreds of millions of euros - reports "Rz". This concerns both organized tours and individual travel services purchased from agencies within the FTI group, such as FTI Touristik, Big Xtra, or 5 vor Flug.
Competing travel agencies were not interested in taking over the trips organized by FTI, preferring to take over the customers themselves and offer them their own services.
Bierbach explains that in the last ten days, together with the German Travel Security Fund (DRSF), they intensively sought a solution to the problem, and the DRSF was ready to take over all payments. Thanks to this, customers, especially those with smaller budgets, could go on vacation without waiting for a refund - reports "Rz".
Unfortunately, it was not possible to carry out trips organized by FTI due to the bankruptcy of some companies serving the tour operator's clients in tourist locations. This includes, among others, companies providing transfers and hotels, which stated that they are not obliged to honor previous contracts.
The administrator, considering the interests of the customers, decided not to cancel all reservations immediately, although FTI's bankruptcy is a significant blow to them.
According to "Rz" estimates, the FTI Group is the third-largest tourism group in Europe in terms of revenue, after TUI Group and Der Touristik. The company employed 11,000 staff worldwide.
Tourists in Egypt
Tourists who went to Hurghada with FTI by June 5th do not need to worry that their stay will be shortened, incur accommodation costs, or have problems returning home.
As stated on June 10th by the Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Ahmed Issa, at that time, about 5,000 tourists were in the Red Sea province (mainly in Hurghada) using FTI's services. At the time of the travel agency's bankruptcy declaration, there were 11,000 guests in the Red Sea province, mainly from Germany and Austria.
The German Ambassador to Cairo, Frank Hartmann, along with the Austrian Ambassador Georg Postinger, confirmed that FTI has insurance for insolvency. The German Travel Insurance Fund guarantees that all costs of using hotel facilities and Egyptian companies will be covered.
