no more XL flights I guess

[besty]

Well another airline missing from our screens. XL has today gone into administration and all flights are grounded.

[Allocator]

Very bad news and a sign of the times.  XL is not a small operator, but running costs, especially fuel, appear to have beaten them.

[testmonkey]

Been half expecting this for a few weeks. They've been in negotiations with creditors since a few weeks back but one of the banks in particular was very twitchy about giving them extended terms.

Don't know all the ins and outs but I believe they were operating at a (technical) profit and booking numbers were considerably up on this time last year. There was a management buy out a couple of years back when the previous company was in dire financial straights and they had done a great job of turning things around. They have grown at a considerable rate and it appears it's more of a working capital / cashflow issue as opposed to operating at ever increasing losses. Day to day running costs were apparently fine it was paying back the massive accrued debts that was crippling them and one of the major backers lost their nerve. Too much too soon?

Certainly would appear to be a case of the global credit crunch killing a business model that not so long back would have been looked at quite favourably. Shame.