Budget Travel clients to get refund offers

By Niamh Hennessy

Thursday, November 26, 2009

REFUNDS will be offered to all Budget Travel customers despite Ireland’s largest tour operator going out of business with the loss of 172 jobs.

The country’s remaining 17 Budget Travel stores shut their doors after the company announced it had gone into liquidation.

Budget chiefs met with the Aviation Regulator last night to hammer out a plan to get home the 747 people abroad. Another 409 customers were planning to jet off over the coming days.

Budget has €11.4 million in a bond with the Commission for Aviation Regulation which will be used to bring home the stranded holidaymakers and refund others.

The collapse of Budget has been described as the biggest loss to the Irish travel business since Bray Travel went out of business in the 1970s. Staff were informed of the liquidation yesterday and were told to close the shops just after lunchtime.

"This has been a painful and distressing time for us all and we deeply regret this situation. We particularly regret the impact of the decision on our loyal customers and on our colleagues," said Budget Travel managing director Eileen O’Sullivan.

The regulator refused to renew Budget’s operating licence last month and the company said this blocked it from applying to the courts for protection under examinership procedures.

"We understand the commission has a job to do, but we sincerely believe had our licences been renewed we would have been able to apply to the courts for protection under the examinership procedures during which we could have restructured our business to take account of the market collapse," said Ms O’Sullivan.

Budget said the regulator placed "unreasonable and unlawful pre-conditions" on it. The company began arestructuring process in August when it announced the closure of 14 of its outlets.

Fine Gael tourism spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said Budget was an icon of the travel trade.

"Its demise is indicative of the difficult trading conditions facing all businesses and, particularly, those whose product sales depend on discretionary spending," she said.

Simon Coyle of Mazars was appointed provisional liquidator.

The company, which has been in business for 34 years, had a 30% share of the market. It has seen a drop of around 50% in sales over the last year.

* There is a helpline to deal with queries: 01-6613122.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, November 26, 2009