http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/788090--skyservice-charter-airline-grounded?bn=1
Dana Flavelle Business Reporter
Skyservice Airlines ceased operations effective Wednesday, temporarily disrupting hundreds of Canadians’ vacation plans and throwing 860 airline employees out of work.
Tour operators said they were scrambling to find replacement flights.
Only one Skyservice flight was scheduled for Wednesday, taking passengers down to the Dominican Republic and bringing returning vacationers back.
However, Skyservice flights were booked with various tour operators through to the end of April as the winter sun vacation season drew to a close.
Sunquest Vacations, the airline’s biggest customer and also its major creditor, said it had organized replacement flights for all of its customers in destination. Most of its remaining flights through to the end of April were not booked with Skyservice so are unaffected, the tour operator also said.
In most cases the replacement flights will leave on the same day as originally scheduled, Sunquest said in a statement.
“Since it is late in the winter season, a relatively small number of our passengers were booked on Skyservice flights and we have the capability to respond effectively to this situation,” Thomas Cook North America CEO Michael Friisdahl said in a statement. Thomas Cook owns Sunquest.
“The loss of Skyservice is regrettable for us and the Canadian travel industry,” Friisdahl said. “However, we have long-established relationships with a number of flying partners and we are able to turn to these partners to quickly and seamlessly arrange alternate flights for our customers scheduled to travel with Skyservice.”
Rival Signature Vacations said it was making arrangements with other airlines to bring passengers back from Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic and also to replace flights scheduled to go out between now and April 26.
“No one was scheduled to fly today. We have staff on location 24 hours a day. We don’t anticipate any problems,” said Signature Vacations spokesperson Janine Chapman.
Registered Ontario tour operators are required by law to provide alternate replacement travel services or a full refund to the customer when service is not delivered, according to the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO).
Consumers should contact their travel agent for information, the council said.
Both Visa and MasterCard advised Canadians who were unable to get refunds for cancelled flights to contact their bank.
Skyservice, a 27-year-old airline, folded under a burden of debt and changing ownership structure within the tour operator industry.
More tour operators now own their own airline, making Skyservice the odd man out.
When Signature Vacations merged last winter with airline, Sunwing, it raised concerns among Skyservice’s owners.
Skyservice had been in talks with rival tour operator Sunquest Vacations to make a similar deal, a source told the Canadian Press. But on Wednesday morning Sunquest petitioned the courts to put the airline into receivership.
Skyservice was purchased three years ago in a leveraged buyout by private equity firm Gibralt Capital Corp. of Vancouver.
Like many airline operators, Skyservice faced excess capacity as consumers cut back on vacations during the recession.
The company had been attempting to negotiate cost-cutting measures with its employees but was not able to reach a deal.
Skyservice has been an important part of Canada’s travel industry, although not one of the better-known players since its primary role is to supply planes and seating capacity to other companies such as Signature Vacations.
The airline offered flights within Canada and to the U.S., Caribbean, Mexico and Europe. Its fleet included the Airbus A330, A320 and Boeing B757.
Dana Flavelle Business Reporter
Skyservice Airlines ceased operations effective Wednesday, temporarily disrupting hundreds of Canadians’ vacation plans and throwing 860 airline employees out of work.
Tour operators said they were scrambling to find replacement flights.
Only one Skyservice flight was scheduled for Wednesday, taking passengers down to the Dominican Republic and bringing returning vacationers back.
However, Skyservice flights were booked with various tour operators through to the end of April as the winter sun vacation season drew to a close.
Sunquest Vacations, the airline’s biggest customer and also its major creditor, said it had organized replacement flights for all of its customers in destination. Most of its remaining flights through to the end of April were not booked with Skyservice so are unaffected, the tour operator also said.
In most cases the replacement flights will leave on the same day as originally scheduled, Sunquest said in a statement.
“Since it is late in the winter season, a relatively small number of our passengers were booked on Skyservice flights and we have the capability to respond effectively to this situation,” Thomas Cook North America CEO Michael Friisdahl said in a statement. Thomas Cook owns Sunquest.
“The loss of Skyservice is regrettable for us and the Canadian travel industry,” Friisdahl said. “However, we have long-established relationships with a number of flying partners and we are able to turn to these partners to quickly and seamlessly arrange alternate flights for our customers scheduled to travel with Skyservice.”
Rival Signature Vacations said it was making arrangements with other airlines to bring passengers back from Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic and also to replace flights scheduled to go out between now and April 26.
“No one was scheduled to fly today. We have staff on location 24 hours a day. We don’t anticipate any problems,” said Signature Vacations spokesperson Janine Chapman.
Registered Ontario tour operators are required by law to provide alternate replacement travel services or a full refund to the customer when service is not delivered, according to the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO).
Consumers should contact their travel agent for information, the council said.
Both Visa and MasterCard advised Canadians who were unable to get refunds for cancelled flights to contact their bank.
Skyservice, a 27-year-old airline, folded under a burden of debt and changing ownership structure within the tour operator industry.
More tour operators now own their own airline, making Skyservice the odd man out.
When Signature Vacations merged last winter with airline, Sunwing, it raised concerns among Skyservice’s owners.
Skyservice had been in talks with rival tour operator Sunquest Vacations to make a similar deal, a source told the Canadian Press. But on Wednesday morning Sunquest petitioned the courts to put the airline into receivership.
Skyservice was purchased three years ago in a leveraged buyout by private equity firm Gibralt Capital Corp. of Vancouver.
Like many airline operators, Skyservice faced excess capacity as consumers cut back on vacations during the recession.
The company had been attempting to negotiate cost-cutting measures with its employees but was not able to reach a deal.
Skyservice has been an important part of Canada’s travel industry, although not one of the better-known players since its primary role is to supply planes and seating capacity to other companies such as Signature Vacations.
The airline offered flights within Canada and to the U.S., Caribbean, Mexico and Europe. Its fleet included the Airbus A330, A320 and Boeing B757.
