XL Leisure Group
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The XL Leisure Group (XLLG) was a major tour operating company in the UK, consisting of charter and scheduled airlines, holiday companies and flight-only tour operators. It also had operations in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
. The group's UK companies were placed into
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
on 12 September 2008.


History

The company began as Excel Airways Group. It was bought by the Icelandic
Avion Group Eimskipafélag Íslands hf. is an international shipping company with 55 offices in 20 countries and four continents; Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Eimskip specializes in worldwide freight forwarding services with focus on frozen ...
in November 2004, previously being owned by the Icelandic Flugfelagid Atlanta HF. In October 2006, there was a $450m
management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...
of the company, although the Avion Group retained 49% of the company. It became XL Leisure Group on 22 December 2006. The French subsidiary,
XL Airways France XL Airways France was a French airline with its head offices on the grounds of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. It operated scheduled flights mainly to long-haul destinations in Africa, the Middle East, the United States and the Caribbean as wel ...
, used to be Star Airlines, while the German subsidiary
XL Airways Germany XL Airways Germany GmbH was a German charter airline headquartered in Mörfelden-Walldorf, Hesse, operating charter and ad-hoc lease services, mostly out of Frankfurt Airport. The airline belonged, together with now defunct XL Airways France, t ...
began as Star Europe. At its height, it flew from 12 UK airports. The Irish airline began in May 2006.


Administration

XL Leisure Group confirmed on their website that 11 companies associated with the group had been put into administration on 12 September 2008. This includes XL Airways UK Limited, Excel Aviation Limited, Explorer House Limited, Aspire Holidays Limited, Freedom Flights Limited, The Really Great Holiday Company plc,
Travel City Direct Travel City Direct was a brand owned by Virgin Holidays. It was previously the trading name of the Really Great Holiday Company PLC, a British holiday company based in Crawley (close to London Gatwick Airport), specialising in holidays to the Un ...
. It was the biggest collapse of a British
tour operator A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holidays and ...
since 1974 when
Court Line Court Line was a 20th-century British tramp shipping company that was founded in 1905. In the 1960s it diversified into shipbuilding and charter aviation. Its merchant shipping interests were based in London. Its shipyards were at Appledore in ...
became
insolvent In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company (debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet inso ...
, affecting 50,000 travellers. XL Airways Germany ceased operations in 2012, while XL Airways France ceased operations in 2019.


Market share

XLLG claimed it was the third largest tour operating company in the UK. Prior to entering administration, it was the main shirt sponsor of
West Ham United F.C. West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, h ...
until the club terminated the partnership with immediate effect on 12 September.


Member companies

At the time the Group entered administration in September 2008, it was made up of the following companies and shareholdings: *
Travel City Direct Travel City Direct was a brand owned by Virgin Holidays. It was previously the trading name of the Really Great Holiday Company PLC, a British holiday company based in Crawley (close to London Gatwick Airport), specialising in holidays to the Un ...
- A UK holiday company specialising in low-cost family holidays to Florida, other parts of the U.S. and the Caribbean. Flights were operated on behalf of Travel City Direct by XL Airways, using aircraft bearing dual-branded liveries. The brand was bought by
Virgin Holidays Virgin Holidays Limited, trading as Virgin Atlantic Holidays, is a company within the Virgin Group that offers holidays worldwide with destinations including the US and Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Ocean and the Fa ...
in December 2008. * Freedom Flights - A seat-only tour operator which primarily sold airline seats to UK tour operators. The majority of its seats were with XLLG's own XL Airways, although Freedom Flights also dealt with seat sales on other airlines. * XL Holidays and Aspire Holidays - XL Holidays was the main tour-operating division of XLLG in the UK, offering holidays worldwide and was fully ATOL bonded. Aspire Holidays was a division of XL Holidays specialising in luxury bespoke holidays and was sold to Jeffersons Limited on 28 October 2008. * CrystalTO and Heliades - CrystalTO is a French tour operator fully affiliated to XL Airways France, offering French travelers package holidays worldwide. Heliades is a tour operator in France, specialising primarily in holidays to Greece. * XL Airways - Was a charter airline with brands in the UK, France and Germany. It began as Sabre Airways in 1994, and was renamed Excel Airways in 2001. It was later rebranded XL Airways in November 2006 after it was found that the airline was more commonly known by the British public as simply XL Airways. Following the acquisition of the French and German airlines Star Airlines and Star Europe, XLLG rebranded these as XL Airways France and XL Airways Germany in November 2006, creating a pan-European airline consisting of at least 34
Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
and
Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
aircraft. *XL Aviation and XL24 - XL Aviation was the commercial sales arm of XLLG. It sold charter capacity on flights operated by XL Airways and also bought and sold charter capacity on numerous other airlines. XL24 was a dealer in "relief" aircraft in the airline-to-airline market, providing sub-chartered aircraft from the XL Airways and other fleets to other airlines who required the extra capacity on short notice. * Interests in: **
Xtra Airways Avelo Airlines () is an ultra low-cost U.S. carrier headquartered in Houston, Texas. It previously operated charter flights as ''Casino Express Airlines'' and ''Xtra Airways'', before transitioning to scheduled operations and rebranding as Av ...
and Skywest, Inc. - Established in 1987, Xtra Airways is a charter airline based in Nevada, USA. It now has bases at
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is a public international airport located in Hebron, Kentucky, United States. It serves the Cincinnati tri-state area. The airport's code, CVG, is derived from the nearest city at the time of ...
,
Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, New York (
John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Avia ...
) and
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. It is owned by CXP Management, and XLLG holds a 19% share of the airline. Prior to XLLG's acquisition of 19% interest in Xtra Airways in summer 2005, the airline was known as Casino Express. The rebranding to Xtra Airways reflects a close relationship between Xtra and XL, which also includes similar aircraft liveries. **Skywest is an Australian regional airline, which began operations in 1963 as part of
Ansett Airlines Ansett Australia was a major Australian airline group, based in Melbourne, Australia. The airline flew domestically within Australia and from the 1990s to destinations in Asia. After operating for 65 years, the airline was placed into Adminis ...
. It was previously owned by Advent Air, in which XLLG held a 5% share. Skywest has since become a wholly owned subsidiary of
Virgin Australia Holdings Virgin Australia Holdings Limited is the holding company that owns and operates Virgin Australia, Virgin Australia International Airlines and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines. It previously operated Pacific Blue Airlines, Tigerair Australia a ...
, and now trades as
Virgin Australia Regional Airlines Virgin Australia Regional Airlines is an Australian regional airline based in Perth, servicing key towns in the state of Western Australia. The airline also flies interstate to destinations such as Adelaide, Darwin, Melbourne and Alice Spring ...
.


References


External links


Administration in September 2008 on the ''Today'' programme
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xl Leisure Group Travel and holiday companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Crawley Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom