Ian Taylor
Jetline Travel enters administration 800
Jetline Travel has gone into administration after ceasing trading as an Atol holder on March 6. Joint administrators Neil Bennett,
of corporate recovery and insolvency firm Leonard Curtis, and Alan Clark, of financial assistance specialist Carter Clark, were appointed on March 28. Jetline director and principal owner
Steven Roberts declined to comment. The company, based in Barnet in
north London, had traded since 2000 and held an Atol for 4,790 passengers but primarily transacted as an agency selling cruises and cheap package holidays. It ceased trading in early March with 800 forward bookings and 20
customers overseas after Carnival brands Princess Cruises, Cunard and Holland America Line announced the cancellation of “some outstanding bookings through Jetline Holidays due to breach of contract”. It is understood Jetline, which
traded under multiple brands, had failed to pass on customer payments. It had been selling cruises both as a retailer and at net rates, making itself the principal on some bookings. The Civil Aviation Authority
required the company to operate an escrow account that held 70% of Atol payments and should cover the bulk of Atol refunds. But the size of Jetline’s non-Atol business in the UK and of its non-UK business remains unclear. An industry source with
Loveholidays and On the Beach buck trend with big Atol hikes
Ian Taylor
The Civil Aviation Authority hailed the March Atol renewal figures, released last week, as indicating companies “expect passenger demand will continue to grow”. But only leading online
agencies We Love Holidays and On the Beach added substantial numbers to their Atols in March, with most major licence holders displaying more caution. The top-five Atol holders are
now licensed to carry 23.3 million passengers, more than two million up on a year ago. But We Love Holidays added almost one million
4 10 APRIL 2025
of these and On the Beach more than 210,000. Jet2holidays and easyJet holidays are licensed for over one million more passengers than a year ago between them but their and Tui’s Atols are unchanged on September. By contrast, the next five largest
Atol holders –
Booking.com, British Airways Holidays, lastminute. com owner BravoNext, Tui-owned Marella Cruises and Expedia – are licensed for almost 650,000 fewer passengers than in April 2024, primarily due to
Booking.com reducing its Atol by 1.1 million. Similarly, the 10 biggest Atol
holders outside the top 10 have reduced their collective capacity to
protection of pipeline monies. The directors sought to find a
Number of forward bookings when Jetline ceased trading in March
knowledge of the company described it as “doing a huge amount of business in the US” and warned: “A lot of suppliers may take a hit.” However, a second source noted
the company “had been winding down for a while” and suggested the volumes were not substantial. Jetline left Abta in November
2020 while being investigated for its handling of customer refunds during the pandemic, leaving it without Abta
buyer through an “accelerated” sale ahead of going into administration. The sales prospectus described Jetline as “a well-established” agency providing “bespoke holiday packages” with “a broad customer base in the UK and internationally, sophisticated proprietary software technology” and a database of 500,000-plus. The prospectus reported
transactions worth £17 million for the year to November 2024, down from £28 million in 2023, the last full year for which there are published accounts. The company’s administrators were approached for comment.
Michael Budge
Alan Bowen
just under two million passengers, from 2,125,000 a year ago. CAA head of Atol Michael Budge
suggested: “Companies renewing their licence in March have shown they expect demand will continue to grow over the next 12 months.” However, Association of Atol
Companies advisor Alan Bowen said: “Most Atol holders are holding their position. Those making huge increases may regret it. This may be a good year, but not a boom year.” There was a small decline in
Atol-holder numbers year on year, from 1,630 to 1,616. But the number
remains on a par with 2023 (1,619) and 2022 (1,618) following consistent decline in the previous decade. The CAA renewed 611 licences out of the 674 due to expire at the end of March, with a further 27 still in the application process. The top-three Atol holders
remain unchanged, with Jet2holidays licensed for just over seven million passengers, Tui for more than 5.8 million and We Love Holidays third with a licence for just over five million. EasyJet holidays, in fourth, is licensed for more than three million, and On the Beach for 2.36 million.
travelweekly.co.uk
PICTURE: Tim Anderson
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