Scottish holiday carrier FLYGLOBESPAN has ceased operations after its tour operator, Globespan Group, collapsed. The Edinburgh-based company operates transatlantic flights from Manchester, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen,and Belfast, to 24 destinations in Europe, North America, and North Africa. The company had been hoping to obtain a funding package from external investors, and earlier this week had expressed confidence that the deal would be closed. But Globespan said that administrators have been appointed to both the tour operator and its ground-handling operation Alba. The Airline is likely to be placed into administration today, and blames liquidity issues for the decision. "All flights have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled," Flyglobespan said in a statement. The entire aircraft fleet has been grounded. Budget carriers RYANAIR and EASYJET have already stepped in to offer special fares to an estimated 4500 stranded passengers, mostly in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Egypt. Another 5000 passengers had reservations in the coming days. Globespan Group said: "Flyglobespan passengers already abroad will need to make their own arrangements to return to the UK using alternative airlines." Flyglobespan was launched in 2002 using a fleet of Boeing 767s and 737s. It also provided capacity to the UK Ministry of Defence. It had intended to operate Boeing 787s having arranged to take a pair from a U.S. leasing company. Thus far in 2009, the Airline had served 1.5 million passengers.
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