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XL Airways enable a person to charter a flight from Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Glasgow, Gatwick, Luton, Manchester or Newcastle. From these cities you can fly to Greece, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland, or Italy. XL Airways wants to offer cheap flights to holiday destinations you might choose. They do have child fares, but they do not have senior fares. They do not allow pets on their flights due to the chartered factor.

The amount of baggage and size of the baggage is going to be determined by where you are flying. They do warn that there could be a handling fee for any oversized luggage. If there is excessive luggage, you could find a charge of 5 pounds per KG for short flights and 8 pounds for longer flights.

Any of the cheap flights through XL Airways are not going to have an in air service. You can purchase a selection of snacks such as paninis, crisps, hot and cold drinks. For shorter flights you are also able to purchase snacks or meals. For a slightly more expensive cost they do have meals served on board. Their flights are the ‘Excel One.’

Since XL Airways deals in chartered flights, you can expect to have a bit more room on the flights most of the time. The pricing for chartered flights is normally higher than your regular airline, but XL Airways offers cheap flights to help you out. These flights will still be a few pounds more than your regular airline, but well worth the space and comfort you can find on a chartered flight.

The customer service with XL Airways will be found in the excellent range. With a smaller flight crew, less individuals on board, and friendly faces at the counters you can expect to enjoy your chartered flight with XL Airways.

If you are a particularly tall passenger needing a little more leg room, you can request a seating area with a little more leg room. XL Airways flies to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and Egypt with their chartered flights.

When comparing airlines it is important to note the price, room, customer service, and flight destinations as we have done above for XL Airways. XL Airways may not be for everyone. They are great flights for groups who want to fly. You can book individually or charter the entire plane. This option offers you more for your flight than a regular airline.

XL Airways is also going to always have cheap flights. You can pre- book these flights months in advance, or wait to see what special options they might have for last minute flights. Like any other airline they will want to have a chance to sell a few last minute seats they haven’t filled yet. This is often where you can find the best rates for any flight. So next time you fly you might find it worth checking out XL Airways. Cheap flights on a short or long trip with a great price are what XL Airways is about.

The recent collapse of XL Leisure Group brought heartache and stress to many holiday makers.

However, aircraft enthusiast were treated to a view of planes rarely seem in the UK anymore, such as the Euro Atlantic TriStar 500 CS-TEB and the Omni International DC-10-30 N720AX.

Below is a complete list of the airlines involved in the largest rescue mission in UK peacetime history:

Air Malta (Malta)
Astraeus (UK)
British Airways (UK)
Bmi (UK)
Euroatlantic (Portugal)
First Choice Airways (UK)
Freebird Airlines (Turkey)
Gadair European Airlines (Spain)
Hennenic Imperial Airlines (Greece)
Jet2.com (UK)
LTE International (Spain)
Luxair (Luxembourg)
Monarch Airlines (UK)
Omni Air International (USA)
Pegasus (Turkey)
Ryanair (Ireland)
Thomsonfly (UK)
Thomas Cook Airlines (UK)
Viking Airlines (Sweden)
Virgin Atlantic (UK)

The question on the minds of many travellers thanks to events such as the collapse of several airlines and the ongoing talk of a global recession. What happens if my Holiday Airline goes Bust?

On Friday 21st September 2008 XL Leisure Group, Britain’s 3rd largest travel company announced it was going into administration, with a debt of £143 million.

What followed was the biggest peacetime evacuation in UK history, undertaken by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

It took over two weeks to complete and involved around 260 flights by 20 airlines, both British and foreign. XL passengers were stranded at resorts in the US, Caribbean, Egypt, Europe and Turkey and this meant the CAA faced a huge logistical operation.

The first job of the CAA was to compile a list of passengers who fell under the umbrella of the CAA administrated Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing scheme (ATOL) and were therefore entitled to travel home on its rescues flights for free.

It is then responsible for finding flights and aircraft to bring these passengers home.

Passengers not covered by the ATOL scheme are offered available seats on these flights, but are responsible for paying for meeting the costs involved.

What is ATOL?

The ATOL system started in the 1970’s following huge government pressure after the collapse of Court Line, which owned Clarkson Holidays.

That particular collapse left 35,000 people stranded abroad and 100,000 with forward bookings with no prospect of repatriation or redress.

The CAA has been managing the ATOL scheme for 30 years and it provides comprehensive protection to around 26 million people every year whilst travelling abroad.

All tour operators selling flights and holidays must hold a licence from the CAA and if the licence holder fails the CAA steps in to arrange transport home, or a refund for those who have not yet travelled.

Repatriation costs are met by the £1 donation via the Air Travel Trust fund, which is levied on each travel booking.

In the year to March ATOL helped 2000 customers of failed airlines complete their holidays and 21,000 received a refund of advance payments. During that period there were 25 failures and total expenditure cost £7.5 million.

Who is not covered?

In the latest collapse it was brought to many people’s attention that whilst some travellers were covered by the collapse some were not. Those not covered were in the main, flight only customers who hadn’t booked their flight as part of a package with a licensed tour operator.

With the rescue operation for XL now complete the CAA must turn its attention to the holders of 200,000 advance bookings. The CAA admits it will take several months to complete the refund stage of the operation.