Scottish Airliner (Flyglobespan) Implodes.

[Big Orange]

Very sad news for the regular employees and stranded passangers:

Scotland's Biggest Airline Collapses

Flyglobespan, Scotland's biggest airline, has this evening collapsed with hundreds of jobs likely to be lost.

The group, which has persistently denied stories written by the Independent that was in financial peril, has had its licence to operate revoked by the Civil Aviation Authority, the airline industry regulator.

The group confirmed that it entered into voluntary administration this afternoon.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accountants, has been appointed as administrator to the collapsed airline, which is run by Tom Dalrymple, one of Scotland’s wealthiest men.

It's believed that Globespan, which was spared administration at the 11th hour last month, failed to receive payments from Halcyon Investments, a Jersey-based special purpose vehicle.

It is understood the payment was linked to funds owed to the airline by E-Clear, a credit-card processing firm.

Globespan Group, which was founded in 1970, has around 900 staff and operates a fleet of more than 10 planes primarily from Scottish airports to destinations such as Alicante in Spain and Orlando in the US.

The firm also operates baggage and check-in facilities for rival budget airline FlyBe at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports. And last year the company won contracts from the Ministry of Defence to fly to the Falkland Islands and Qatar from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

Last month the group staved off collapse with a last-ditch cash injection

Administrators were lined up to handle the airline's collapse but directors at Globespan Group managed to secure new funding at the 11th hour.

The Independent

Not good news to hear when British Airways employees want to strike. Could these be early signs of the commercial airlines going into decline? If so, that would worringly be a huge aspect of the global economy going down in flames; a very broad guillotine blade slicing down on millions of jobs and thousands of businesses everywhere.

[aerius]

I'm not surprised at all. I work at a major international airport and around this time of year it's usually complete fucking madness. Everyone's flying somewhere for the holidays and everyone at Customs gets to work all the overtime hours they want and then some, they beg us to come in and work overtime. Not this year. Volume's picked up a bit but it's barely any busier than a typical weekend.

With the economy the way it is people just can't afford to fly, or even if they can fly some will choose not to. High oil & fuel prices aren't helping either, the airlines can't pass the costs along without making tickets stupid expensive and killing what's left of their customer base. And that's not even getting in the leasing and financing costs of all their airplanes, with credit the way it is these days, yeah, have fun there. The airlines are getting raped from both ends. And their greedy-ass unions too. Even more fun there. They're almost as fucked as the US auto companies.

[Broomstick]

In addition to problems with the economy and fuel prices, the US "security" agency has come up with a new rule that basically means anyone with an ' or a - in their name won't be able to board in a couple months. Unless, of course, the agency and the airlines can get their shit together, which I presume they won't as neither gives a rat's ass. That means if your name has an O'Conner or O'Donnell in it, or you're a Gomez-Ramirez, you're fucked as far as flying is concerned. (And yes, I fall into that category)

Ya, THAT'S going to help global transportation....

Think I'll be driving to visit folks. If I need more than that, like a trip to Europe or Australia, if they don't get that shit straightened out I'll get a passport, driving to fucking Canada, and fly from their as their rules seem somewhat less batshit insane.

[Akumz Razor]

Might want to clarify the title. I thought this was a story about a catastrophic loss of cabin pressure or something. Moving along...

[Akumz Razor]

ghetto edit = Broomstick, could you expand on the new hyphen/apostrophe rule? This is the first I'm hearing of it. Will these people be barred from flights? Or just subject to additional "random" security screenings?

[Broomstick]

As I understand it (and I have not yet read an original source on the rules, just 2nd hand reports) once the rule goes into effect the name on your ticket must EXACTLY match the name on your ID. The problem? For decades, the airlines have never printed tickets with ' or - in names, they smooshed them all together. So O'Conner becomes Oconner and Gomez-Rodriguez becomes Gomezrodriguez. Which the TSA says is not an exact match. The airliners are pitching a fit, complaining it's too expensive or whatever to learn how to type ' or -. The TSA says if there's not a match then the passenger doesn't fly. Which basically means that, due to an accident of spelling, a whole shitload of people in the US will be bared from flying NOT from being a risk but because of the spelling of their name. One jackass I heard suggested that such people should simply change their legal names to something more compliant... uh, yeah, dude. Aside from the fucking hassle that can be, way to shit on peoples' surnames and ethnicity.

So I expect I will lose access to commercial air travel, at least for awhile, if that shit actually goes into effect.

[aerius]

Both of my parents have hyphenated first names, they're gonna have a ton of fun in the future if the US is actually stupid enough to put that rule into effect. We have quite a few relatives & family friends in the US, guess they're not going to be getting any visits from us. Well, I could visit but my parents can't.

[Stark]

Hah! My girlfriend has a hypenated first name; I guess no trip to visit Hav after all.

[Akumz Razor]

Wow, that's extremely ridiculous. I can only hope that is such a rule does go into effect it will be such a clusterfuck and revenue loss that the airlines will quickly learn how to type the additional characters. As for the rule itself, it seems somewhat unnecessary, but I suppose I can see where they're coming from.

[Sea Skimmer]

Book tickets online then. If the airlines are too dumb to let people type there own name and directly copy that onto the tickets… then they deserve to die.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

The Airline Industry is in the deepest shit since 9/11 and it's even worst crisis since 2007. IATA is reporting that revenue collapsed in the order of 10-20 billion USD last I heard, and this is likely just the beginning of the end for many airlines. To cut costs, many airlines have parked hundreds of aircraft in the desert in the US, cutting back capacity substantially, while also cutting back prices. JAL for example, is in deep trouble and is negotiating with Delta and American Airlines for a possible stake buy-in or merger.

[Simon_Jester]

Book tickets online then. If the airlines are too dumb to let people type there own name and directly copy that onto the tickets… then they deserve to die.

True. Though in this case I don't think the TSA is being any less dumb than the airlines; it's just that they have the upper hand in the Idiot Contest. Or is there a reason why the TSA couldn't revise their rule except sheer bloody-mindedness?

[CmdrWilkens]

Book tickets online then. If the airlines are too dumb to let people type there own name and directly copy that onto the tickets… then they deserve to die.

That doesn't solve the problem. Take my corporate booking prior to my demotion. All of my data is stored on my account profile so the travel agent can book the flights automatically through the system. Well one of the issues with this program is that you will be required to provide your full middle name (not just an initial) as part of the booking process. Unfortunately the reservation computers aren't built to handle this so my name instead of being "Gregory Robert ..." ends up being "Gregoryrobert ..."

Its the reservation computers at the airlines which currently are just not programed to accept and spit back out on to the ticket anything other than two names with no flourish whatsoever.

[Sea Skimmer]

Then they can change the software, this is not brain surgery and they have plenty of time to do so. Seriously, if they bitch about costs then they are just a bunch of idiots, the cost of software changes are trivial in an industry which pays 400,000 bucks just to fuel up a single 747. Matching exact names sounds like it would work out WAY better then the current system which already ends of denying thousands of people flights because so many people have the same shortened names. The alterative is just let anyone fly, forget about the security and then listen to the howls of idiot protests the next time something happens. That’s not going to happen and it shouldn’t have to.

Me I look forward to the return of ocean liners but that will have nothing to do with this.

[Broomstick]

Book tickets online then. If the airlines are too dumb to let people type there own name and directly copy that onto the tickets… then they deserve to die.

The problem isn't where you book your reservation, the problem is what the airline spits out for a boarding pass. As someone who has had a hyphenated name for a couple decades and flown on a number of airlines, booking reservations in a number of different ways, flying for both personal and business reasons.... it doesn't matter how you buy that ticket, the end result is the hyphen removed and the two parts of the name smooshed together. Oddly enough, even the normal bureaucrat can still figure out what's going on, but not the TSA (apparently).

[Bounty]

Then they can change the software, this is not brain surgery and they have plenty of time to do so.

Unless, of course, the printers at the check-in were designed to only print letters and numbers. Alphanumeric-only systems sadly still exist.

[Broomstick]

Then they can change the software, this is not brain surgery and they have plenty of time to do so. Seriously, if they bitch about costs then they are just a bunch of idiots, the cost of software changes are trivial in an industry which pays 400,000 bucks just to fuel up a single 747.

And yet.... the airlines are stubbornly resistant. Not that the government is any better - there are STILL air traffic control towers using machinery built in the 1950's.

I expect the rule will go into effect, there will be a clusterfuck of epic proportions, and eventually it will all get sorted out, but not until a lot of screaming and crying occurs.

[cosmicalstorm]

Then they can change the software, this is not brain surgery and they have plenty of time to do so. Seriously, if they bitch about costs then they are just a bunch of idiots, the cost of software changes are trivial in an industry which pays 400,000 bucks just to fuel up a single 747. Matching exact names sounds like it would work out WAY better then the current system which already ends of denying thousands of people flights because so many people have the same shortened names. The alterative is just let anyone fly, forget about the security and then listen to the howls of idiot protests the next time something happens. That’s not going to happen and it shouldn’t have to.

Me I look forward to the return of ocean liners but that will have nothing to do with this.

Can you explain the last part about the return of ocean-liners? I can't imagine most people would want to sit around on a boat for several days even if it was a bit cheaper than flying.

[folti78]

Then they can change the software, this is not brain surgery and they have plenty of time to do so.

Unless, of course, the printers at the check-in were designed to only print letters and numbers. Alphanumeric-only systems sadly still exist.

Yep, eeevil regulation forces companies to drag themselves into the 21st century...

BTW, will this regulation affects foreigners with non-english characters in their names? It would be a big embarrassment if people banned from flying because their passport says Jószef Kovács but the ticket says Jozsef Kovacs for example.

[Broomstick]

Yes, it will affect everyone without exception

[TheLostVikings]

Then they can change the software, this is not brain surgery and they have plenty of time to do so.

Unless, of course, the printers at the check-in were designed to only print letters and numbers. Alphanumeric-only systems sadly still exist.

Yep, eeevil regulation forces companies to drag themselves into the 21st century...

BTW, will this regulation affects foreigners with non-english characters in their names? It would be a big embarrassment if people banned from flying because their passport says Jószef Kovács but the ticket says Jozsef Kovacs for example.

The official romanization of the Norwegian letters Æ,Ø, and Å are AE, OE and AA respectively, which has led to a lot of people being barred from flying because the name on their passport automatically gets flagged as being one character shorter than the one of the border pass.

Luckily many air lines will just write Ø as O, etc, but it can still cause problems.

[Thanas]

Can you explain the last part about the return of ocean-liners? I can't imagine most people would want to sit around on a boat for several days even if it was a bit cheaper than flying.

Two-3 days is not that much of a time difference if you go on a lengthy vacation and it sure as hell is more fun.

[Broomstick]

I would like to repeat that I have not seen a first-source document on this upcoming rule change. Until I do, I can not be sure of the exact situation. It may be that some of this was floated just to get it into the media (if so, was only mildly successful). It may change before final implementation (we can only hope so). But don't be surprised if sometime during 2010 the shit hits the fan over this.

[Sea Skimmer]

Can you explain the last part about the return of ocean-liners? I can't imagine most people would want to sit around on a boat for several days even if it was a bit cheaper than flying.

You assume it would only be a bit cheaper, why? A liner would already be cheaper right now, in ten years airline ticket prices could be forced triple as the cost of oil could well triple. It’s not going to be a matter of choosing one or the other for most people, it’s going to be either you take a liner, or you can’t afford to travel internationally. The current Blue Ribbon holder is for a voyage of less then four days, shitty for a business traveler but not bad at all for someone intending to take a long European or American vacation. In fact some Cunard cruise ships including Queen Mary 2 actually already DO run America-Europe routes intended to let them function as liners, though most people using them for that purpose do so only out of nostalgia.

And yet.... the airlines are stubbornly resistant. Not that the government is any better - there are STILL air traffic control towers using machinery built in the 1950's.

I expect the rule will go into effect, there will be a clusterfuck of epic proportions, and eventually it will all get sorted out, but not until a lot of screaming and crying occurs.

What don’t the airlines, and just about every other industry in the US, resist when it comes to more government regulation? Not much that I’ve ever seen.

[Big Orange]

Airships seem to be the best compromise between the swift, but fuel hungry fixed wing aircraft and the sluggish, but more fuel friendly ocean liners.