Rant

This is nowt to do with running (which I can't do at present by the way) but I am hearing the news about people being stuck abroad when the travel company fails again today and really can't understand why this is  the case.

Here's my thinking,

We all know from experience that before you get your tickets or set off on holiday you have to pay the full balance of your trip to the holiday company.

So the holiday company have the money in cleared funds in their account which they (presumably) then pay out from to the resort hotel, transfer bus company, airline etc.

So if the airline has been paid for the return flights why do they not fly the people home as booked and paid for?

If the holiday company HASN'T paid the airline (ie the holiday company pay the airline in arrears) then surely the airline is duty bound to fly the people home and pursue the directors of the holiday company in the usual manner for the money owed.

As the planes are flying back to the UK anyway with all the other passengers from other holiday companies, and it would seem highly unlikely that the airlines would somehow find different people wanting to fly to the UK from these resorts who hadn't already arranged their flights home, the plane seats will surely mostly remain empty? So what would the airline lose by flying them back? they might even make some cash selling duty free/gifts/perfume etc.

Perhaps I am missing out on something obvious here. Perhaps I am over simplifying the situation. I'm not a doctor but it seems perfectly simple to me that if the holiday company used the money they received from the holiday makers to pay the airlines for both flights prior to the holidaymakers leaving the UK then nobody should ever get stuck abroad.

Rant over