Tour operator Silverbird Travel ceased trading yesterday, becoming the sixth long-haul specialist to fail this year.
South London-based Silverbird sold tailor-made itineraries to the Far East, also trading as The Far East Travel Specialists, Lanyard Travel, Oriental Variations and Royal Orchid Holidays.
An Atol-holder and member of both travel association Abta and the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO), Silverbird also arranged travel for service families.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was unable to say last night how many clients were overseas and how many booked to travel. It advised Silverbird customers booked to depart to Singapore today on Singapore Airlines and British Airways flights that they would be able to travel and should go to the airport as scheduled.
However, the CAA said there would be no further outbound flights – adding that passengers with flight-inclusive packages “may be able to claim a refund”.
The Abta website lists Silverbird Travel with the advice: “All the package holidays organised by this company are covered by a scheme which provides for your financial protection in the event of company failure.”
Silverbird’s failure follows that of African Safari Club, Goa-specialist Global Travel Agency, Caribbean-specialist Rion Travel, Grus Travel PTY (which sold escorted tours to Australia and New Zealand) and Malaysia-specialist Oriental Panorama since the start of the year.
The failures follow a sharp rise in both the price of fuel and the air passenger duty (APD) on long-haul flights.
Industry analyst GfK Ascent reported a 10% fall in long-haul bookings for this summer at the end of March.