Munich, 07 June 2024 – After intensive examination and in close coordination with the provisional insolvency administrator Axel Bierbach and the German Travel Security Fund (DRSF), FTI Touristik GmbH has decided to cancel all trips with departure dates up to and including Friday, 5 July 2024. The company has immediately started to inform the affected customers and service partners about the cancellations.

"Since the beginning of the week, together with FTI and the DRSF, we have been examining all options for the further realisation of already booked trips in the interest of our customers.  A solution seems possible, but not in the next few days. In the interests of customers departing at short notice, we therefore believe that the best solution is to cancel all trips starting in the next four weeks. This will give customers the planning security and flexibility they urgently need for their upcoming holidays”, said the provisional insolvency administrator Bierbach on Friday in Munich. According to him, operating the trips during this period would have been associated with too many uncertainty factors and risks for holidaymakers in the destination countries.

The decision affects all package holidays, individual bookings and individual services that customers have booked for this period via FTI Touristik GmbH, the sales brand 5vorFlug and BigXtra Touristik GmbH. Yesterday, Thursday, 6 June 2024, the subsidiary BigXtra Touristik GmbH, which belongs to the FTI GROUP, also filed for insolvency at the Munich Local Court. Axel Bierbach from the law firm Müller-Heydenreich Bierbach & Kollegen (Munich) was also appointed provisional insolvency administrator for this company.

FTI and the provisional insolvency administrator, together with the DRSF, are continuing to work hard to find a solution that best serves the interests of customers and service partners for trips booked via FTI and BigXtra with departure from Saturday, 6 July 2024. “Intensive negotiations are underway with competitors in which we are exploring whether a takeover of package holidays is possible and practically feasible”, said Bierbach.

“Our aim is to enable customers to travel to the planned destination during the planned holiday period at the agreed travel price, taking into account the deposit already paid. Especially for customers with high down payments or a small budget, this would be an opportunity to travel without having to wait for the DRSF to reimburse the travel costs already paid to FTI. At the same time, we are all aware that we only have a short time to find such a solution, as the uncertainty – especially in view of the upcoming summer holidays – is a great burden for all holidaymakers affected”, he added. A decision on whether all remaining bookings will be cancelled or taken over by other providers should therefore be made very soon.      

With regard to the holidaymakers who are currently still in the destination countries, Bierbach said: “We very much regret the inconvenience caused and are making every effort to minimise this for all those affected.”

_{About the FTI GROUP
With its numerous brands and subsidiaries, the FTI GROUP is the third largest tour operator in Europe. It includes FTI Touristik as well as the short-term tour operator 5vorFlug, the car rental broker Drive FTI, the destination management company Meeting Point International, which is active in over 40 locations worldwide, and the tour operator for promotional goods BigXtra. Under the umbrella of the hospitality company MP Hotels, the company bundles its hotel brands Labranda Hotels & Resorts and Design Plus Hotels, Kairaba Hotels & Resorts, Lemon & Soul Hotels, Club Sei and Managed by MP Hotels. TVG Touristik Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH combines the franchise systems with the brands sonnenklar.TV Reisebüro, 5vorFlug and Flugbörse. Around 10,000 partner agencies sell FTI products throughout Germany. The TV travel shopping channel sonnenklar.TV, an FTI GROUP partner, and the online B2B provider for accommodation Youtravel are also important sales channels. The consolidator FTI Ticketshop is responsible for the sale of scheduled flight tickets. In Austria, FTI Touristik is represented by a branch in Linz. The subsidiary FTI Touristik AG, based in Basel, represents the tour operator in Switzerland. The French tour operator FTI Voyages has been part of the FTI GROUP since 2012. With FTI Reizen, the group has also been active in the Netherlands since 2016. The seven service centres handle numerous bookings for the FTI GROUP and external customers. Headquartered in Munich, the Group employs over 11,000 people worldwide and generated consolidated sales of around € 4.1 billion in the 2022/23 financial year.}

_{Further information at www.fti-group.com.}  

_{About Müller-Heydenreich Bierbach & Kollegen}

_{The law firm Müller-Heydenreich Bierbach & Kollegen (www.mhbk.de) is a partnership of lawyers with offices throughout Bavaria that has specialised in restructuring and insolvency administration for many years. A total of six administrators handle insolvency proceedings at numerous local courts in Bavaria and Thuringia. The firm's particular strengths include insolvency plan proceedings, self-administration and group insolvencies in addition to restructuring by transfer.}

_{Lawyer and insolvency administrator Axel W. Bierbach specialises in business continuations and restructurings in a wide range of industries and has many years of experience in this field. In the tourism industry, he has handled the insolvencies of tour operator IPM Service & Reisen GmbH (distribution partner of Tchibo-Reisen, among others), VIVA Sportreisen GmbH and the Munich-Upper Bavaria Tourism Association, among others. Bierbach is a member of the Verband Insolvenzverwalter und Sachwalter Deutschlands e.V. (www.vid.de) as well as the Gravenbrucher Kreis, the association of leading, nationally active insolvency administrators and reorganisation experts in Germany who act in accordance with the exclusive InsO Excellence standard (www.gravenbrucher-kreis.de). Bierbach is recommended as a top lawyer in the current industry rankings by JUVE, The Legal 500, Best Lawyers and WirtschaftsWoche.}

Contact for customers:

The FTI customer hotline can be reached on +49 89 710 45 14 98.  Customers can also access a support website at www.fti-group.com/en/insolvency.

Contact for the media:

For the provisional insolvency administrator                                                                           

Kanzlei Müller-Heydenreich Bierbach & Kollegen                                                      

Nicole Huss

E-Mail: presse@mhbk.de

Für FTI Touristik GmbH

Angela Winter

E-Mail: presse@fti.de