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Another Low-Cost Carrier Fails
Low-cost-carrier LTE ceased to operate today because of its financial predicament. The Spanish carrier stopped booking flights on Thursday, but some would-be holidaymakers were left with luggage in hand, waiting to get from rainy England to the sunny Canaries. LTE specialized in such routes and worked closely with several English tour operators. LTE was not a newcomer to the LCC game. It has been operating for 20 years and, though its executives claim that they are trying to find a solution to their financial woes, the current state of the industry isn't going to lend itself to any quick recoveries. Thomas Cooke Airlines, a charter service based in Manchester, is among the players stepping in to service LTE's passengers and the tour operators that relied on the now defunct airline in the past. With European LCCs coming and going (mostly going, these days), one can almost hear Elton John crooning "The Circle of Life." when all is said and done, the biggest beast, Ryanair and EasyJet, might be the only survivors.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kendoll Oct 19th 2008 12:51AM
Sorry, but sounds like you put yourself in this position. Chase doesnt just give out $9000.00 checks. It was probably a line of credit on the new credit card you received and with an interest rate as well. In addition, you should purchase stocks with cash and not credit cards, which is what it sounds like you did. You have a real mess here, but no one forced you to take the bait that Chase was offering you. I have a Chase card and get these "checks" in the mail every week and then I deposit them right in the shredder.
WARREN GARRISON Oct 19th 2008 1:14AM
I'm so glad for you. Once again if you didn't seem to get it. They sent the card, they sent a check, I pondered the thought that Met Life was $75 a month or so ago and went down to $26. With a 3% fee to write the check and no interest until March, even if Met Life went up $5, that would be $1500 and where can you make that honestly in 4 or 5 months except MAYBE at the Casino? But all of that is completely besides the point. These bastards OK'd the check, are you getting this? The Chase Branch called and verified the check and got an authouritzation number, are you still with me? We deposited it to my account, not some weird account that would cause anyone to question and yet they said that they called to verify with me this process and they are a DAMN LIE!!!! I have the modem that registers my calls, my voice mail, I call look at my activity online, AND it registers though my e-mails. Something fishy is going on, bottom line!!! I'm sure they have violated some banking practice and have a call in to my attorney about this. I have an AT&T card that is $25,000.00. ANYTIME I want to write a check, I deposit it, 2 days later it goes through and I have never had a problem. The should have not issued the goddamn thing if they were going to pull this crap as it could have caused far more problems than it already has. But to talk with 17 of these damn morons and then not have a solution to this delimma they've put me through is unpardonable. There's always someon online like yourself that wants to criticize and has a solution that is exactly opposite to what the other person did. I'm sure though that if a person gaver you a check and you took it to the bank and deposited it, then sat down and wrote out checks to someone you owed and then suddenly realized the first party had put a stop payment on their check, YOU WOULD HAVE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ATTITUDE!!!! NO DOUBT IN MY MIND OF THAT.
WARREN GARRISON Oct 19th 2008 1:22AM
AGAIN, AVOID CHASE BANK AND ESPECIALLY THEIR CREDIT CARD COMPANY. I HAVE THE BEST CREDIT IN THE WORLD, I HAVE SEVERAL CARDS THAT RANGE FROM $12,000 TO $25,000 AND HAVE WRITTEN THESE CHECKS OUT FROM TIME TO TIME DEPENDING ON THE NEEDS OF MY BUSINESS. NEVER HAVE I HAD A PROBLEM LIKE THIS, NOT FROM AT&T, NOT FROM DISCOVER CARD, NOT FROM ANY OTHER COMPANY. AND TO ANYONE WITH SOME EXCUSE IN DEFENSE OF THESE BASTARDS, I'M SURE IF SOMEONE GAVE YOU A CHECK, YOU DEPOSITED IT, IT POSTED AND THEN YOU USED THE MONEY ONLY TO FIND OUT THEY HAD STOPPED PAYMENT YOU WOULD BE BITCHING TO.
Sheri Oct 19th 2008 2:15AM
To Warren Garrison:
At least you have plenty of other high-amount credit cards to replace the money you took out, or at least you thought you took out from Chase. It sounds like you can EASILY replace $9,000 into your check book. I doubt the casino would be the place to find the money. LOL
warren garrison Oct 19th 2008 3:36AM
thanks for the response but I don't seem to be getting the point across that this is an underhanded low life unscupulous action by these people and I have to believe it falls into some kind of a category called "unethical banking". You talk to a banker about say buying a new vehicle and he says, "no problema, find what you want and we'll cover it up to x amount of dollars". You go out, you spend the time looking, you find the car/truck, mo-ped you want and you write out a check and drive away. You get home or maybe you even run by the bank to show the person your new car and sign the papers for the load and he says, "know, I got to thinking it over and I don't think we can help you with that". I have to believe that the very worse thing about this inter net is the fact that people beat and bash and criticize others for things who if they were in the same position would be screaming bloodly murder. 99.9% of the people online are "do as I say, but not as I do". When I think of all the traitors in this country who will vote for Obama and I look at McCain and do see an old man, probably suffering from his time in the concetration camp and all and I know like my days of getting thrown, and kicked and stomped on a ranch it hurts a little worse each day. BUT, looking at McCain the other night it hit me, BAM! about a court room case I watched years ago and any fool could see the guy was innocent but I remember this one girl saying, "well yea I voted him guilty, after all, he just looks creepy". What a hell of a way to judge a person and most of this godless Liberal country is doing the same in this election. Voting for Obama because he's black, and voting against McCain because he looks old and creepy. Good, I'll live long enough to see you people living on your knees like slaves.
Ron Oct 19th 2008 1:39PM
Just a thought.... it is general practice that you should wait about 10 days for a check to clear before you start spending the money. Had you waited, there would not have been any issues with the money being available.
svenster Oct 19th 2008 3:34AM
Interesting Warren. I'd be pissed too. But... What does this have to do with the failure of low cost ailine LTE?
A few years back, there were also dire predictions of a "bloodbath" as the 60 or so low cost airlines in Europe either died off or suffered massive consolidation and takeovers. And today?... There are still about 60 low cost airlines in Europe.
J. Jones Oct 19th 2008 6:31AM
Ah, the lovely banks that we're now bailing out because they screwed up. Well, at least Chase is not alone -- they are all pulling this.
As for low cost airlines -- the sooner they all die the better. As a million mile flier on a real airline, that has been cutting service to compete with those low fares, this is just plain dumb. It is inconvenient enough to have to travel once or twice a week, but now with services cut to compete with those damn low fares, it is absolutely miserable.
The little Jet Blue fiasco last winter is a prime example. They are in business, only because they carry barely enough staff to handle day to day activities when things go well. When a disaster strikes people get stranded for days -- all of those passengers got exactly what they deserve for flying a low life airline (note, I don't call them a low cost airline). Bring on the bankruptcies, yeah!