Ian Taylor
Jetline owed trade creditors £3.4m £37k
A Statement of Proposals by
Jetline Travel went into administration in March owing an estimated £3.4 million to unsecured trade creditors and a further £800,000 to consumers, according to the company’s administrators. Cruise lines are owed more than
£1.2 million – £427,000 to Princess Cruises, £248,000 to Carnival, £236,000 to Holland America Line, £132,000 to Cunard and £175,000 to Royal Caribbean. Jetline ceased trading after Carnival
brands Princess Cruises, Cunard and HAL cancelled some bookings through the company “due to its breach of contract” by failing to transfer customer payments on schedule.
joint administrators Alan Clark of Carter Clark and Neil Bennett of Leonard Curtis calculates more than £4.4 million is owed to unsecured creditors and puts the total deficiency at £4.7 million. But these remain estimates, with directors Steven Roberts and Andrew Todd yet to file a Statement of Affairs and the amount owed to the Air Travel Trust fund for Atol-protected bookings unspecified. The administrators note that
only secured creditor Barclays Bank, which is owed £1.2 million and holds the mortgage on Jetline’s property in Barnet, north London, “will be repaid in full”. The property is up for sale. They warn: “It is considered unlikely there will be sufficient
Abta raises fears over changes to apprentice funding
Juliet Dennis
Abta has criticised changes in funding for apprentices as “not properly thought through” and warned the new rules could affect travel firms’ ability to attract senior recruits and upskill workforces. The government this week
confirmed apprenticeship levy funding for Level 7 apprenticeships will not be available for employees over the age of 21 from January 2026. The announcement confirms
employers would need to provide alternative funding for the highest level of apprenticeships, which are
4 29 MAY 2025
equivalent to a master’s degree, except for existing apprentices or new starters under the age of 22. The Department for Education
said the move aimed to “rebalance” levy funding towards training at lower-level apprenticeships while maintaining support for 16-to-21-year-olds. It follows a 13% increase in the
government’s apprenticeship budget for 2025-26 to just over £3 billion, which it said allows an extra 30,000 apprenticeships in the next four years. Abta’s director of public affairs,
Luke Petherbridge, said taking funding away from the highest level could be detrimental to the sector.
“Abta welcomes the government’s
focus on increasing take-up of apprenticeships among young people, but the changes to Level 7 apprenticeships do not appear properly thought through,” he said. “Typically, those taking up these
courses will be graduates or those seeking to develop their skills after years in the workplace, so restricting access to those aged below 22 will severely restrict the ability of travel businesses to attract talent for certain roles and limit opportunities for upskilling their existing workforce.” Petherbridge urged the
government to engage with the
industry to assess the impact of the changes and to “keep this decision under review”. Despite Abta’s concern, training
provider Damar Training suggested the change would have limited impact as firms would still be able to use levy funds for apprenticeships from Level 2 (equivalent to GCSE) to Level 6 (degree level). Managing director Jonathan Bourne
said: “This affects a relatively small number of apprenticeship standards [job roles], such as solicitor and senior leader. The good news is that travel companies can still access funding for apprenticeships at lower levels.”
travelweekly.co.uk
Amount owed to Jetline staff in pay and pension contributions
funds available to enable any form of distribution to unsecured creditors.” These include flight provider
Aviate, which is owed £523,000, and accommodation provider Bedsonline, owed £285,000. The sale of Jetline assets, including
databases and IT, to Travelodeal in April realised just £60,000. The administrators record the
company, which sold as Jetline Holidays and Jetline Cruises in the
UK and as Jetline Vacations in the US, held customer databases of 247,000 (cruises) and 529,000 (holidays) in the UK and 68,000 in the US. The CAA, which required Jetline
to operate an escrow account holding 70% of Atol payments, confirmed the company had 800 Atol-protected bookings and 20 customers abroad when it ceased trading on March 6. However, there was no pipeline protection for trade payments after Jetline quit Abta in November 2020 over its handling of pandemic-era refunds. The company entered
administration on March 28 with its 27 staff owed £37,000 in wages, holiday pay and pension contributions. Jetline owner Steven Roberts has so far declined to comment.
PICTURE: Shutterstock/fizkes
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