Transatlantic airline Zoom collapses due to soaring fuel costs

Transatlantic airline, Zoom, has become the latest airline to collapse blaming the economic downturn and soaring aviation fuel costs.

The airline has axed all its flights leaving thousands of passengers stranded. The airline has told passengers that it has gone bankrupt and there will be no more flights.

It did, however, say that British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were offering special fares for passengers whose flights had been cancelled.

Zoom was founded in 2001 by Scottish brothers John and Hugh Boyle. The carrier flies mainly to Canada from Glasgow, Gatwick, Belfast, Cardiff and Manchester airports.

Jonathan Hinkles, UK managing director of Zoom, said the airline’s fuel bill had risen by around £15 million over the last 12 months alone, which has resulted in a rise of approximately £85 on the cost of a return ticket price on a trip to Canada.

Mr Hinkles said from now until the end of next year, around 40,000 people in the UK and Canada had bookings with Zoom.

Any customer who booked their ticket using a credit card will be able to obtain a refund from the credit card provider and that covers the vast majority of our passengers, added Mr Hinkles.

With regard to debit cards, people need to check with their provider to see if a refund can be obtained, he added.

For the last two months, the airline has been working on a financing deal and progress was being made, but yesterday a number of aircraft were seized by airports authorities.

Zoom is based at London’s Gatwick airport and employs 450 staff in Canada and 260 in Britain.

Other carriers have been badly hit by soaring fuel costs while several airlines have gone out of business this year including ATA Airlines, Aloha Airgroup, EOS, Maxjet, Silverjet and Skybus Airlines.

Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association recently warned that the airline industry faced a grim outlook and passenger numbers would be affected by surging fuel costs and the deteriorating economic situation.

Story link: Transatlantic airline Zoom collapses due to soaring fuel costs