FTI insolvency: 700,000 holidaymakers asked – what remains of their dream?

FTI insolvency: 700,000 holidaymakers asked – what remains of their dream?

The insolvency of the third largest tour operator in Europe, the FTI Group, has brought significant financial and emotional stress for numerous holidaymakers. The German Travel Insurance Fund (DRSF) was founded to offer travelers protection in the event of insolvency. Loud derwesten.de An interim assessment was made one year after the bankruptcy: around 212,000 affected consumers were invited to submit applications and over 172,000 applications were processed.

A total of around 245 million euros in refunds have been paid out so far. By fall 2024, 80 percent of the reimbursement amounts had reached their target group. The first repayment took place just one week after the application was submitted on August 8, 2024. Despite these successes, around 6,000 cases remain open that require more intensive checks and primarily concern modular bookings and bookings with agency collection.

Open applications and challenges

A large proportion of the open applications are waiting for feedback from travelers. Ali Arnaout, managing director of the DRSF, described the FTI insolvency as a test for the travel security system in Germany. He emphasized that numerous valuable insights were gained from this situation for the further development of the system. Loud consumerzentrale-niedersachsen.de The DRSF plans to close all open cases in the coming weeks.

There are various support options for consumers. The consumer advice center offers free short advice on topics relating to travel defects. For more complex matters, it may be necessary to make an appointment for an on-site or video consultation, during which documents can also be checked. Written out-of-court legal representation is also offered, but this costs 40 euros.

What travelers should know

The advice offered by the consumer advice center is limited to out-of-court consumer law matters. We do not provide advice on disputes between private individuals or in areas such as tenancy law, family or inheritance law, tax law, labor and social law, or criminal and traffic law. Cases from the commercial or professional sector are also not taken into account. Data protection information is available to anyone interested.

Overall, the DRSF is faced with the challenge of processing the last open cases quickly in order to enable the affected holidaymakers to receive prompt refunds and to restore trust in the travel security system.