SPECIALIST operator Allegro Holidays has folded after sales were wrecked by a catalogue of disasters in Turkey.
Managing director Norman Meredith said bookings fell by 50% in 1999 following terrorist threats from the Kurdish group PKK, the Kosovo crisis and two massive earthquakes.
He said parent company Allegro Tours decided not to renew the licence with the Civil Aviation Authority after claiming the operator’s bond had been increased from 15% of its £5m turnover to 25%.
He said: “It would have meant us paying an additional £650,000 in cash.
“Bearing in mind the situation in Turkey we took the decision to call it a day. We could not risk that kind of money.”
Allegro, which Meredith formed in 1997, carried 28,000 passengers to Turkey in 1998 but saw traffic reduced by 50% in the first 10 months of this year.
The operator cancelled 1,700 holidays in October and has not taken any advanced bookings for 2000. Allegro angered agents when it cancelled the flights and many agents have still not received any payment.
One agent complained that it would take months to get the money back from the CAA at a time when agents had negative cash flow (Travel Weekly November 1).
A CAA spokesman said the company’s bond has not been called.
“The last 12 months have been a real rollercoaster ride for us,” said Meredith. “January was great, then bookings died when we had the threat from the PKK. It picked up again, slowed to a trickle during the Kosovo war, came good when Spain sold out and then we had the earthquakes. It’s been non-stop.
“We also had no second destination to fall back on. Although we had plans for 2000 we only featured Turkey in 1999.”
The Wilmslow-based operator’s 12 staff have all been made redundant.
Meredith, who was previously a product director at Sunset, said he was now considering an overseas position with one of the four major operators.
n The Turkish Tourist Office has had its annual worldwide budget increased five-fold and been handed an extra $30m to try to revive the country’s flagging tourism.