The Throb of the Engines

This just in from a pal in the airline business...

The latest XL related casualty is the closing this morning of....wait for it...Throb Holidays.

Throb specialises in holidays for gay persons...nothing like using a discrete name! At least the passengers had protection (so to speak) through the ATOL scheme.

Throb had of course paid all their money to XL, and now cannot recover those funds. This is the problem with tour operator to tour operator sales. Passenger's remain protected through the bonding scheme, but the tour operator who has paid their money (in this case to XL Leisure, as opposed to the airline) loses it and simply becomes a creditor.

You couldn't make it up....

As Nature Intended

What better way to break a bit of a quiet patch for airline-related nonsense and entertainment than with some naked Germans? Yes folks, at last the German nudist market is being properly serviced by an East German travel agency. Those wishing to cast off their garb in flight can now visit ossiurlaub.de to book a trip from Erfurt to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom, leaving on July 5th at a cost of £370.

The new and innovative element of the holiday is the fact that the entire passenger list (we hope it's all of them and that nobody ventures aboard unawares) is intending to strip off for the duration of the flight. They'll have to be clothed until they're on the 'plane and dress again to disembark. The crew will keep their kit on for 'safety reasons'. The safety reasons have not been specified - the mind boggles at the potential for burns if the emergency slides get used!.

Mr. Enrico Hess, the head of the travel agent which is endeavouring to plug the gap in the market for naked flight noted that Naturism, or "free body culture" (FKK) as it is called in Germany, was banned by the Nazis but has boomed since the end of WWII. He went on to say "I don't want people to get the wrong idea. It's not that we're starting a a swinger club in mid-air or something like that. We're a perfectly normal holiday company." Absolutely.

Travel Agent Sustains Industrial Injury

A couple of years ago the Managing Director of a large travel agency had apparently been playing fast and loose with his companies money for some time. It was such a serious situation that when it came to the notice of the shareholders, of which he was not one; they decided to terminate his employment. When the Chairman of the company was asked to comment on the departure of the MD he said. “He has had to leave us because he unfortunately sustained an industrial injury – his fingers were caught as the till slammed shut.”