CRUISE THE MED

The heat wave enjoyed last summer in Ireland has resulted in a dip in early 2014 sun holiday sales at the country’s largest travel agency.

Pre-tax profits at the largest travel agency in the country, Club Travel last year increased by 13.7% to €3.9m.

Networking is key to business, but the genders do it differently. Men act too soon, grasping at deals. The fairer sex spend too long being friendly, says Claire Droney

ALMOST €10 million has been paid to Irish consumers in the past three years over the collapse of travel agents.

MERGER transactions notified to the Competition Authority were up 70% last year, but the number of deals fell back to 2003 levels.

GILLIAN Bowler is to step down as chairwoman and a director of Irish Life & Permanent in the new year after a successor is appointed. She is the last of the bank chairmen to resign in the wake of the 2008 banking crisis.

Budget Travel founder and Irish Life & Permanent Chairman Gillian Bowler has launched a new online travel company which begins trading today.

DESPITE the volcanic ash plumes causing chaos across Europe, Irish people are still travelling abroad and the sheer number of holidaymakers stranded overseas during the recent airport closures is testament to that. According to CSO figures there were over seven million overseas visits in 2009.

A USB memory stick containing the personal details of tens of thousands of Budget Travel customers has been stolen as part of an “opportunistic” robbery from the company’s headquarters.

Rival airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus launched a holiday war today as both revealed competing summer schedules.

THE March 1 launch of the new service from Cork to Swansea aboard the MV Julia approaches, and the Fastnet Line has promised a variety of promotional fares.

The Liquidator of Budget Travel has announced that it has agreed to sell the trade name of Budget Travel to Club Travel Limited.

AS a new year unfolds, the next phase of the recession will be more brutal. At every level, be it household, business or nationally, we have been busily adjusting our expenditure in line with reduced incomes and revenue. As the situation deteriorated, we kept our focus on survival. Each situation eventually stabilises.

Over 1,400 companies went out of business last year, or around four a day, according to new figures.

A NUMBER of companies have shown interest in purchasing Budget Travel which went into liquidation earlier this month.

The High Court today made winding up orders for Budget Travel and motor dealership EP Mooney who between them employed more than 260 workers.

BUDGET TRAVEL has moved to assure holiday-makers not due back in Ireland until next week that the firm will make “alternative arrangements” for their return.

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.

LEAVING Cert student Gillian Griffin paid a €100 deposit for her summer holiday at 2pm at Budget Travel yesterday.

More than 170 jobs were lost tonight as the country’s largest tour operator Budget Travel went bust.

Ireland’s largest tour operator Budget Travel will cease trading from this evening with the loss of 172 jobs and the closure of the company’s 17 retail shops, it has been announced.

A DUBLIN woman was bitten on her face and neck by a large rat – as she slept in a Tunisian holiday hotel.

Union leaders hit out today after workers at the country’s biggest travel agency were offered basic redundancy pay-offs.

IT’S a sign of the times that Irish tour operators are having to trim down operations to stay in business.

TOUR operator Budget Travel is set to axe 95 jobs and almost half of its Irish stores by October as part of a “restructuring” process caused by a 40% drop in customers.

Tour operator Budget Travel is to slash by almost a half the number of outlets it operates, and cut about 95 jobs.

Up to 50 jobs are being lost today with the liquidation of the Portlaoise Travel Group.

NO eggs were thrown at the annual general meeting of Irish Life & Permanent in Dublin yesterday, but sadly the bank’s shareholders didn’t get to bring home the bacon either.

THE recession gloom is still lingering, but we are slowly beginning to book summer holidays, with extra city breaks becoming a thing of the past, according to tour operators.

TRAVEL companies have reported a steady number of new year holiday bookings despite the financial burden facing consumers.

WALLETS might be thinner in the current economic climate but Irish holidaymakers are still splashing out on faraway sunspots this winter.

IRISH charter airline Futura Gael ceased operating at midnight yesterday, placing 90 jobs in jeopardy as economic uncertainty in the airline sector claimed another victim.

THOSE looking for an alternative luxury winter sun holiday might be tempted by new deals to the Dominican Republic.

Tour operator Budget Travel could be facing legal action after 180 Irish holidaymakers were delayed by nearly 30 hours on their return journey from the Spanish resort of Salou.

Almost 200 Irish holidaymakers returned home safely tonight after their flight from Spain was delayed and later diverted over safety concerns.

BUDGET Travel, owned by Icelandic firm Primera, made a pre-tax profit of €4.3 million last year.

BUDGET Travel joins the list of companies offering winter breaks before summer is even over.

PRIMERA Escorted Tours, in association with Budget Travel, has launched a new series of luxury autumn/winter tours.

BUDGET Travel has announced the launch of its new Caribbean winter brochure featuring the tropical resorts of Playa Dorada in the Dominican Republic and Cancun in Mexico.

IF YOU think the phoniest feature of a return flight home from holiday is the orangina tan, it probably is.