ATT receives £1.17m from Goldtrail Ian Taylor


The Air Travel Trust, which underwrites the Atol scheme, finally secured a payment from the liquidators of Goldtrail Travel, the latest trust accounts reveal. The trust received a Goldtrail


‘liquidation dividend’ of £1.17 million in the financial year to March 2023, more than a decade after the company went into voluntary liquidation in July 2010. Goldtrail owner Abdulkadir Aydin


folded the company and left the country after transferring £10 million to himself, leaving the Air Travel Trust to pick up the £25 million bill to refund 75,000 customers. The liquidation also triggered the


failure of associated business Flight Options, which traded as Kiss Flights, in August 2010, costing the trust an additional £19 million. In Aydin’s absence, liquidators


PwC sought to recover funds from those subsequently found to have “dishonestly assisted” Aydin. Seven years of litigation followed.


The liquidators brought claims in 2014 against Turkish airline Onur Air and a group referred to in court as ‘the BPI defendants’ – former XL Leisure Group boss Phil Wyatt, associates Magnus Stephensen and Halldor Sigurdarson, and Wyatt investment vehicle Black Pearl Investments (BPI). Wyatt and the others had been


involved in a series of failures, including XL Leisure Group in


‘Busy’ January sales give way to ‘steady’ February


Juliet Dennis


Independent agents reported “steady” rather than “earth- shattering” sales last week and predicted more of the same for February as new data shows consumers are continuing to prioritise travel spend. Many agents described January as


a mix of record sales and slow days – but still a top-performing month. Travel Weekly agent columnist


Colin Burns, branch manager of Hays Travel in Gateshead, said the agency “smashed targets” some days but dubbed others “toilet roll days” – enquiries that did


4 8 FEBRUARY 2024


not make it to the booking stage and “rolled” just out of reach. Idle Travel director Tony Mann


agreed: “January was a bit mixed, but we’ve still topped £1 million-worth in sales, above January 2023 and double 2019. Last week was all right but not earth-shattering.” He forecast a “decent” February,


adding: “I don’t think February will be busier than January, but that’s not a negative. We’ve got used to more consistent levels of business every month over the last couple of years.” Deben Travel managing director


Lee Hunt said the agency’s booking conversion rate had dropped in January from 64% to 50%. He


The Air Travel


Trust was left to pick up the £25 million bill to refund 75,000 customers


2008, which cost the Air Travel Trust £28.6 million despite providing a bond in excess of £41 million. The High Court found for the


liquidators and, when the defendants appealed in 2016, the Court of Appeal found they “knew everything about Aydin’s plan”. However, Onur Air sought to overturn the ruling and resisted an attempt to obtain payment before agreeing a settlement in 2018.


Two of the three BPI defendants


settled, but payment by the third remained outstanding and a bid by the liquidators to claim against a fourth person was rejected by the High Court in 2020 and the Appeal Court in 2021. The liquidators did succeed in


recovering about £6.7 million – £1.9 million from the BPI defendants and £4.85 million from Onur. But the process cost almost £8.4 million, including £5.2 million in legal fees, and the liquidators reported just £1.9 million in funds against almost £26 million in claims in their final report in January 2022. Just under £1.17 million of this amount was


finally paid to the ATT last year. i Business, back page


Surveys suggest consumers are prioritising travel


highlighted continued uncertainty over interest rates. “Possibly people are enquiring and then booking online,” he said, adding: “It’s been steady rather than busy, but it’s still our second-best January after 2023.” Tivoli Travel owner Jo Richards


said sales “had not stopped” since the start of peaks, but said the agency had also attracted clients by offering to match Jet2 and Tui’s online prices. “If we can we will,” she said, but


added: “We’re still getting high-value bookings.” Kelly Cookes, chief commercial


officer at The Advantage Travel Partnership, said sales chimed with holidaymaker surveys. “Research has


shown consumers are continuing to prioritise travel over other expenditure and this is backed by the data,” she said, adding: “There is high demand across the board.” NatWest’s Retail and Leisure


Outlook Report 2024, based on a survey of 2,000 people, suggested holidays were increasingly considered a “necessity” rather than a “luxury”. It found 17.3% of UK consumers planned to spend more on holidays this year than last year. Similarly, Barclays’ consumer


spend report for January showed spending growth through agents and airlines continued to outstrip almost all other sectors.


travelweekly.co.uk


PICTURE: Shutterstock/Yaroslav Astakhov


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