Stobart Air’s collapse marks the beginning of a summer of company crashes as firms fail after coming off furlough cash
With so-called ‘Liberation Day’ postponed a month, the travel, hospitality and holiday industries have been hammered by the Government provoking anger and frustration in those industries.
The leader of the Tory backbench MPs Graham Brady urged the Prime Minister Boris Johnson to scrap restrictions pointing out the schools have gone back without a hitch and he slammed the doomsters as 'naysayers'.
ICSM's Ian Carrotte said the number of Covid deaths were less than most other illnesses, hospitals were not under pressure from the virus and the lockdown evangelists in SAGE were dominating Government thinking.
“Stobart Air collapsed at the weekend,” he said, “meaning more jobs have gone as Aer Lingus have cancelled scores of flights and laid off workers. You cannot run an airline with a fraction of the seats sold. The Government’s betrayal of ‘liberation day’ of June 21st has seen British Airways put thousands back on furlough at the tax-payers expense. Frankly it is not the way to run an economy. The obsession with the Delta variety of Covid has clouded minds and condemned many firms to oblivion.”
Airline News reported: “Flights to Leeds Bradford, Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester, East Midlands and Birmingham have been cancelled. Aer Lingus flights from George Best Belfast City Airport to London Heathrow will not be affected. Stobart Air also operated a number of routes within the Republic of Ireland for Aer Lingus and flights on those routes have all been cancelled.”
The BBC detailed the stories of scores of passengers left stranded and out of pocket while suppliers to Stobart will be wondering if they will ever get paid.
Meanwhile the Government will end furlough payments that fund up to 80% of salaries for firms on the scheme leading to a generation of zombie firms that have no hope of surviving ‘cold turkey’ when the payments end on September 30. Already many firms have been without any real income since March 2020 and are calling it a day as their debts make it impossible to survive.
ICSM records company failures every month in their legendary ‘Runners and Riders’ section of the newsletter. Proprietor Ian Carrotte said there had been a rise in voluntary liquidations. He said: “Many companies are just facing up to the inevitable hoping they can salvage something from the ashes. But there have been a string of companies that took the furlough cash, taken the grants on offer and have run up debts with no intention of paying them before shutting up shop and disappearing. That of course is fraud – and it’s no comfort to the suppliers who are left high and dry.”
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For details for the work of the journalist Harry Mottram visit www.harrymottram.co.uk