XL CEO blames collapse on speculators

The head of Britain’s XL holiday company, which has gone bust leaving thousands of passengers stranded, has blamed speculators for the collapse.

XL said it had been unable to keeping going amid rising fuel prices and the global economic downturn. All of XL’s aircraft were grounded on Friday morning.

“Unfortunately, the huge fuel price hike
has increased our costs, year on year, by over 80 million US dollars. So where many people have been ‘making hay’ with high oil prices, this is the repercussions of that ‘hay’: 1,700 people potentially out of work today in the UK,” said XL CEO Phil Wyatt.

Thousands of passengers at airports across Europe have stranded. Many turned their anger on the firm.

“Why didn’t they adjust the prices if it was just because of the fuel costs. Surely they could’ve taken that into consideration when they were selling flights, even on Monday,” said one man in the London terminal.

XL’s failure is the latest in a series in the travel sector. The Spanish charter airline Futura International, which was Europe’s biggest independent medium-haul charter airline, filed for
administration earlier this week. The same fate befell Zoom Airlines last month.

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