EUJET is not a British airline but had most of its operations based at Manston when its owner Planestation plc called in the receiver at the end of July. The UK CAA last week published a report into the failure and the after effects. The CAA has never before, to our knowledge, investigated a foreign airline in this manner and if a study of Eujet and its collapse was to be done ABTN believes that this should be undertaken by the Irish Authorities (who probably do not have the resources). The CAA, it would seem, is using Eujet to strengthen its case for an insurance scheme to cover all airline failures. Nevertheless it is an interesting document. 12,000 of its passengers were already abroad, while a further 27,000 had yet to travel. In a survey of just over 3,000 former Eujet customers, of those already abroad 77% found out of the collapse from friends and relatives. Nothing was organised for them. easyJet quickly came in with a ”25 offer to bring clients home and helped 1,758 people but they then had to make their way to Manston to collect their cars. The numbers carried by other airlines were minimal. The costs involved in getting home were very high for most passengers. The report highlights the chaos caused by the bankruptcy and the fact that passengers booking with a credit were usually protected, but if it was a debit card this was not so.
http://www.caa.co.uk