Bankruptcy of FTI Touristik: crisis for Europe's third largest tour operator
Europe's third-largest tour operator FTI Touristik GmbH declares insolvency in Munich, affecting all booked trips and leaving thousands of employees destitute
2' min read
Key points
- The German tour operator has a cash shortage and a hole in its balance sheet
- Travel booked in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands affected
- The Federal Ministries of Economy and Finance decided not to bail out the travel company, after an initial post-Covid bailout costing around 600 million.
2' min read
It had been sailing in bad waters since the pandemic. And now it has foundered. FTI Touristik, the German group tour operator FTI Touristik GmbH with 11,000 employees and Europe's third largest travel company, took its books to court and opened insolvency proceedings today in Munich.
The bankruptcy affects all trips booked with the tour operator FTI Touristik GmbH. These include the FTI brands in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, the 5vorFlug brand in Germany and also BigXtra GmbH, DriveFTI rental cars and Cars and Campers.
Requests from the Berlin-based casamadre to the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Economics for new aid were unsuccessful over the weekend, as reported by Handelsblatt. During the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government helped the company, which had been short of liquidity for years, with a EUR 595 million injection through the Economic Stabilisation Fund. But this support was not enough.
The German press reported that a takeover deal set up by a consortium led by US financial investor Certares, which wanted to take over the FTI group for one euro and invest EUR 125 million in the company, also failed.
In a statement, FTI said that the company is working hard to ensure that trips that have already begun can be completed as planned. To this end, the German Travel Insurance Fund, launched in 2021, will step in. If a travel provider goes bankrupt, FAZ reported that the Deutsche Reisesicherungsfonds should take care of the reimbursement of customers' down payments and also the return transport of stranded holidaymakers and their accommodation until the return transport.
