Fly Globespan on the brink ?

who else did eclear provide clearing for, does anyone know??

EClear in administration order!

I suppose this should be seen as good news to come out of this unfortunate saga, however, I suppose it will not do anything to help all those people that have lost their jobs and/or had flights and holidays booked through the Globespan group.

From TravelMole:

EClear in administration order!

An order for the administration of payment processing firm EClear was made by the High Court today.

The move by Mr Justice Vos followed the failure of EClear to submit evidence of funds of £35 million on Friday related to the collapse of Scottish operator Globespan.

BDO has been appointed administrator.

PricewaterhouseCoopers administrator for Globespan Bruce Cartwright said: “Over the last month we have sought financial reassurance from EClear and are disappointed that the funds are no longer there.

“We will now work closely with BDO to maximise the situation for Globespan creditors under exceptional circumstances.

“Those who bought services on credit card or visa debit, that have not been supplied, will continue to be protected by consumer card legislation and should contact their credit card issuer.”

by Phil Davies

Posted at 03:15 on 06 January, 2010 UTC

French Polynesia’s flag carrier has signed a deal with the British army to fly soldiers from England to the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

The head of Air Tahiti Nui, Christian Vernaudon, says one of its Airbus planes with its crew has been leased to fly the military personnel this month.

He has told local radio in Tahiti that this type of activity is possible because the airline has five Airbus planes at its disposal.

Mr Vernaudon says contracts of this type have already been signed worth almost 10 million US dollars.

News Content © Radio New Zealand International
PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand

Money recovery attempt

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8440131.stm

Well there is already “something in the air…” as these websites suggest:

http://nimbusairlines.com/ (no info on this site as yet, just rolling clouds?!)

http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/airlines/nimbus-airlines-boldly-launches-get-funded-show

Indeed there appears to be.. Hopefully named ‘Phoenix’ and with a large middle finger salute on the tail !!!

I fully expect some other operator – or perhaps a new one – will step into the market and cover the capacity that FlyGlobeSpan had in the Scottish market – and even recruit some of those that are now unemployed. Optimism.

Well there is already “something in the air…” as these websites suggest:

http://nimbusairlines.com/ (no info on this site as yet, just rolling clouds?!)

http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/airlines/nimbus-airlines-boldly-launches-get-funded-show

Hello,

Just to echo some of the sentiments in this thread; the collapse can only be described as a great loss to UK aviation. It is a great shame that so many are out of employment, particularly at this time of year.

I fully expect some other operator – or perhaps a new one – will step into the market and cover the capacity that FlyGlobeSpan had in the Scottish market – and even recruit some of those that are now unemployed. Optimism.

Tommy do you actully work in the Airline Industry?

Does it matter whether he is or not?

The boy doesn’t have to be employed by an airline or airport to be entitled to an opinion. Tommy comes out with some silly statements now and again but let’s not ridicule him before he has had a chance to justify what he is trying to say.

Tommy Flew with Jet2 once! Thats proberly his reason. Christ he even saw me that day when he checked in! Thank god i got sent to do a gate and missed him.

Tommy do you actully work in the Airline Industry?

I didn’t know you were qualified to make such calls.

He isn’t, but let’s hear his explanation anyway! 😀

Paul

gsm should of merged with jet2 a long time ago.

What are your reasonings?
I didn’t know you were qualified to make such calls.

gsm should of merged with jet2 a long time ago.

Why ?

They’d still be owed £34 million quid.

gsm should of merged with jet2 a long time ago.

Wonder if Tommyinyork is paying attention?

Very interesting, something fishy here!;)

This from BBC Business correspondent Douglas Fraser makes interesting reading…

Globespan’s missing millions – part three
Douglas Fraser | 19:18 UK time, Friday, 18 December 2009

Meet Mr Elias Elia. He’s the chief executive of E-Clear, amongst other roles. One of those other roles is fascinating – of which, more later.

But let’s start with E-Clear. That’s the company, based in Mayfair, London, which handles credit card transactions for airlines, and which is uncomfortably close to the demise of Globespan and flyGlobespan airline.

To recap – we’ve been told by its administrator that Globespan was owed around £30m (and I’m told more) by E-Clear. This was money that had been paid for tickets, but which had not been passed on to the airline.

Steamed up

We also know that the administrators think a very large chunk of that, at least half, was money paid for tickets on flights that had already landed. There seemed no clear reason why that money continued to be withheld, after it ceased to carry the risk of being reclaimed.

That’s what got Finance Secretary John Swinney steamed up with indignation at E-Clear’s role, while being interviewed on Radio Scotland earlier today.

And at last, E-Clear has started doing some responding. It released a statement this afternoon, in which Mr Elia sympathises with those affected by Globespan’s collapse. Here it is in full:

“London, 18 December 2009 – The directors of E-Clear wish to express the company’s deepest sympathy for the customers and staff of Flyglobespan affected by the airline’s move into administration.
Particularly at this time of year it is a distressing situation for all involved.

“E-Clear is committed to working closely with the administrators of The Globespan Group to clarify and address the various complexities around the airline’s financial position, so that matters may be resolved as quickly as possible.

“E-Clear’s chief executive officer Elias Elia says: ‘As one of the world’s leading payment card processing companies, we have many years’
experience in the airline industry and we will bring this expertise to bear in pursuit of an equable solution that reflects the interests of all parties’.”

And that’s all. Obviously, it leaves some questions hanging in the air.

E-Clear and administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers are discussing today what was owed. The credit card transactions company wants to stress that the administrator has not blamed the airline’s collapse on a lack of cash flow.

Future risk

What joint administrator Bruce Cartwright did say yesterday was that the airline had sustained a big loss two years ago, and it needed an injection of capital. But in a media briefing, he went on to leave little doubt that the large amount of money owed was the key issue he had yet to understand.

It seems there had been a disagreement between Globespan’s (former) management and E-Clear about how much money was owed. Some cash continued to flow to Globespan, but its offer of appointing an independent auditor to adjudicate the dispute was, I’m told, not accepted by E-Clear.

It is also being claimed by E-Clear’s PR team that a finance company withholding money from credit card transactions is entitled to continue doing so even AFTER the flight has landed – up to six months later, because there are some circumstances in which an insurance claim can still be made on that ticket.

“In E-Clear’s position, it covers its exposure to future risk on flights that may have been cancelled in the past. It’s not possible to quantify what claims may come in, so it’s necessary to be prudent.”

Globespan could no longer get insurance industry cover from July last year – before the collapse of Zoom and XL. So E-Clear’s response after that was to insure itself by withholding money for much longer.

Jersey trust

But here we get to the really interesting bit. Earlier this week, Globespan’s chief executive, founder and chief shareholder, Tom Dalrymple, issued a couple of statements saying the airline management continued to be in discussion with a company called Halcyon Investments, about an injection of capital.

Halcyon had been in discussions with flyGlobespan going back at least as far as September, which was around the point when others who were interested in investing in the airline pulled out.

What do we know about Halcyon Investments? Not much, except that it was registered as a trust in Jersey during August of last year.

But now that E-Clear has started communicating, we know more about it. It’s a group of high net-worth individuals, and as a trust, it does not have directors. One of those investors is informally described as “the lead representative”, and is one and the same Elias Elia.

So he was chief executive of E-Clear while it was in dispute with flyGlobespan over a very large amount of money – enough, it could be argued, to explain the airline’s financial collapse this week.

At the same time, Halcyon Investment, led by Mr Elia, was negotiating with Globespan management to take over the company, or at least to take a large stake in it.

Could there, perhaps, be a conflict of interest?

The answer: “There were different investors in Halcyon, so any exposure to risk that E-Clear had or has would not have been affected by Halcyon’s attempt to secure a future for flyGlobespan.

“E-Clear and Halcyon Investments are two entirely separate entities.
The two companies operated independently”.

Really?

Saturday 19 December, 11am

Allbury Travel Group has ceased trading this morning, according to the Civil Aviation Authority. Based in Hertfordshire, it included the brands Libra Holidays, Argo Holidays and JetLife, and flew out of English airports to Greece, Cyprus and Egypt.

More than 100 holiday-makers have been left stranded, and arrangements are being made to bring them home, while there were 4000 forward bookings.

Credit card transactions for buying Allbury Travel Group holidays were carried out by E-Clear.

Allbury Travel Group is a subsidiary of Allbury Ltd, a Virgin Islands company in which the controlling interest is reported to be a Mr Elias Elia.

I’ve tried to find out more from Mr Elia, but less than 24 hours after taking on a public relations agency to deal with unwelcome E-Clear publicity, the two have parted company. And he’s not answering calls.

And today another travel company linked to Elias Elia and E-Clear/ Halcyon bites the dust… Hmmm…. ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8422421.stm

And now the Scottish First Minister is demanding an investigation….

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8422441.stm

And… If it’s “ok” for credit card clearing companies to ‘keep’ the money until flights have landed, then why isn’t it ‘ok’ for those of us punters who’s credit and debit cards get ripped as soon as we advance book to ‘keep’ the money until our flights have landed ?

There’s something about this whole affair that stinks to high heaven, friends of mine in the aviation sector have lost their jobs and quite frankly it’s not good enough. But hey, as long as our chums in the financial sector are continually looked after when they get burned, why worry about the rest of it…:rolleyes::mad:

The question is, will E-Clear be told to pay up? Or are they gonna get away with it?

I sincerely hope not, and I do suggest the Scottish Parliament investigate this fully. I think that E-(un)Clear have got a hell of a lot of explaining to do.