Sun4U Collapse Strands Over 1,000 Holidaymakers

This weekend, about 1,200 British travelers were stranded after tour operator Sun4U collapsed, becoming yet another travel company on a lit of others that have collapsed due to the recession. The UK company said that they had huge losses because of the volcanic ash cloud incident and the collapse of Goldtrail in the middle of last month, whom they organized flights for.

A majority of the stranded holidaymakers were in Spain this weekend and being made to pay a second time for their hotels. Sun4U has apologized to their customers and staff of 90, who are now jobless. The firm has advised their customers to call the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) to get compensation.

However, the ABTA is telling the travelers to contact their credit or debit card companies instead. This is because most of the bookings made through Sun4U were in conjunction with non-ABTA agents or hotels, which means they aren’t covered by the Air Travel Operators’ Licensing (ATOL) scheme, which is run by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). They say that those who are covered under the program will be able to continue their break as planned.

A CAA spokeswoman said that they understand there are around 1,200 people on holiday abroad that booked with Sun4U, and they are trying to determine how many are protected under the scheme. They are also trying to determine how many people have forward bookings with the company, she added.

The collapse of both Goltrail and Sun4U has raised concerns that more tour operators will collapse in time because of poor trading conditions in the travel market. This comes as TUI Travel warned last week that profits for the company will be on the lower end of estimates for the year, which caused the market to drop.