Start-up airline ordered to suspend sales
Start-up carrier JetXtra.com has been ordered by the Civil Aviation Authority to stop selling seats after the company claimed, incorrectly, that bookings would be protected by travel partner CTT Group’s ATOL.
The CAA said today that it had not yet approved an increase in the number of licensed sales CTT could make in a year so JetXtra’s bookings were not covered by its ATOL.
The carrier, launched by the founder of failed airline venture Nexus, started selling summer-only flights from Humberside Airport to Majorca and Malaga earlier this month.
It claims on its website that the CAA has forced it to stop taking bookings due to a legal dispute with Leeds-based Jet2.com. As previously reported on TravelMole, Jet2 issued JetXtra with a solicitor’s letter last week in which it requested JetXtra to change its name. JetXtra claimed this week the CAA had refused to put JetXtra on CTT’s ATOL until the dispute was resolved.
JetXtra director Daniel Reilly said: "The decision would appear to be a kneejerk reaction by the Civil Aviation Authority."
However, the CAA said the legal dispute was not the reason JetXtra had suspended sales. "The name dispute has nothing to do with us," said a spokesman.
"CTT Group has sought permission from the CAA to trade with Jetxtra but we have not yet approved an increase in the numbers of licensed sales they are allowed to make in a year.
"This is unrelated to threatened legal action, and we expect to be able to clarify the companies’ position in due course."
Reilly attempted to launch another airline, Nexus Airways, in 2005 when he was just 18-years-old but that venture never got off the ground.
Passengers who had booked flights from Liverpool to the Canary Islands with Nexus were told the airline’s licensing partner had gone into liquidation.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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