Flyglobespan passengers recoup £12m

PASSENGERS owed money for flights following the collapse of Flyglobespan have recouped £12 million through a consumer protection scheme, it has emerged.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the administrators acting for the failed airline, held a meeting with about 80 creditors in Edinburgh to update them on their work in clawing back around 15m owed to 40,000 people.

Bruce Cartwright of PwC revealed that the money has been paid back to protected creditors – those who paid for flights on their credit or Visa debit cards.

Mr Cartwright said: "We can confirm that in terms of individual members of the public who had booked travel with the firm and our creditors, around 80 per cent have either claimed or are entitled to claim their money back through consumer credit regulations or visa debit protection cover."

He said there is up to 3m in outstanding payments still to be repaid to other affected creditors.

Customers who were not covered by protection, known as "unsecured creditors", can expect to receive around 5p back in every pound spent.

This amount could rise if the administrators claw back money from E-Clear, the credit-card handling company which is reported to owe an estimated 35m to Flyglobespan.

It was also revealed that administrators have got 50,000 claims to adjudicate on and the process could take two years.

Around 650 employees at the discount airline lost their jobs and thousands of passengers were left stranded abroad when the firm collapsed late last year, citing problems with liquidity.

The 650 members of staff who lost their jobs are due to receive compensation through a government scheme.