Bankruptcy of travel group FTI Affected customers to be compensated by fall - but not all of them

Following the bankruptcy of tour operator FTI, the package tour customers affected are to receive their compensation in the coming months. However, this does not apply to all of the more than 250,000 people affected.

"The majority of refunds should be made by the fall," said a spokeswoman for the German Travel Security Fund, which covers package tours. "The reimbursement process is currently being prepared and will start soon." The spokeswoman did not give an exact date for the start of payments.

According to an analysis of the insolvent company's booking and travel data, a total of 250,000 package tours have been canceled. In addition, there were 60,000 package holidaymakers who were already on vacation with FTI at the time of the insolvency. Payments that those affected had to make locally in order to continue trips that had already begun could now also be reimbursed. The fund did not provide any information on the total amount of compensation due when asked.

According to estimates by the Swiss Travel Association, around 10,000 customers in Switzerland are affected by the FTI bankruptcy, said SRV President Martin Wittwer in June.

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Only package tours covered

After the FTI bankruptcy, the travel insurance fund commissioned other tour operators such as Tui and DER Touristik to look after stranded FTI tourists so that they could continue their vacations. Swiss travel providers also stepped into the breach for FTI. The vast majority of travelers were thus able to complete their trip as planned, it was said. The fund will transfer the costs incurred directly to the respective tour operator.

FTI, previously the third-largest European provider, filed for insolvency at the beginning of June and shortly afterwards canceled all trips that had already been booked. The German Travel Security Fund protects payments already made for package tours against the insolvency of the tour operator. The protection does not apply to individually booked travel components such as pure hotel bookings. There is also no reimbursement from the fund for individually booked flights or rental cars.

The fund, which is organized by the German tourism industry and supervised by the Federal Ministry of Justice, was established following the insolvency of travel group Thomas Cook in September 2019. In the event of the bankruptcy of a travel provider, it is intended to take care of the reimbursement of customers' advance payments, the repatriation of stranded holidaymakers if necessary and their accommodation until they are repatriated.

SDA