Isango chief executive Ranjan Singh responds to the failure of XL Leisure Group.
Impact on confidence within the market?
Bad! If the number three can go down, what else could happen? It had the brand customers trust, the scale which potentially could have allowed some operating cushion. This collapse will do a lot of damage to us.
First of really big outfits to go?
Indeed. But will it be the last? As I said above…it had all the characteristics that a big player relies on to weather such storm. I am confident the bigger players are well placed to weather any downturn, especially with the efficiency gains through their recent mergers.
What does it say about the fragility of the sector?
The double whammy of high fuel costs and consumer downturn is making it especially difficult. Needless to say, one without the other could have been easier to manage. The airline sector is expected to make a loss of £2.5 billion this year.
With sox airline failures since last Christmas and this high-profile collapse…the question is are there any sacred cows? The much bigger companies and stronger brands might be ‘sacred-er than thou’ but the rest is anyone’s guess.