A west London tour operator and travel agency, Dream World Travel, has called in insolvency practitioners owing consumers an estimated £11 million.
The company’s failure was confirmed by the CAA on Wednesday.
Dream World Travel held an Atol and was licensed to carry 4,450 passengers this summer.
The company was an appointed representative of Fly Now Pay Later Ltd, allowing customers to pay the balance of bookings in monthly instalments.
It sold chiefly long-haul travel, including to the US, South America, Southeast Asia and Australia.
Dream World Travel has been trading since 2006 and sold under its own name and as Al-umrah.com, Businessclassflights.co.uk, Bookholidaysonline.com and Bookonlineflights.com.
It described itself as “one of the UK’s leading independent travel agencies”. The company was not an Abta member.
Dream World Travel’s most-recent accounts to the end of June 2021 showed a loss of just over £20,000 for the 12 months, on turnover of almost £5.8 million.
It reported owing creditors almost £1.9 million at this time, plus an additional £232,000 in bank loans, but reported £2.3 million in current assets.
The accounts were signed off by auditors Sterling Associates after Dream World Travel’s previous auditor Pittalis Gilchrist resigned in March 2022 for unspecified reasons.
Dream World Travel reported turnover in excess of £36 million for the 12 months to June 2020 despite the start of the Covid pandemic in March that year, but it made a profit after tax of just £8,225 on the period.