Air firm Zoom suspends operations

1:23am Friday 29th August 2008

Low-fare transatlantic airline Zoom, which flew from five UK airports, has suspended all operations and cancelled all flights after running into financial difficulties.

The move began when the Canadian-UK carrier had a plane detained at Calgary Airport in Canada because of the financial problems.

Then BAA prevented a Canada-bound Zoom aircraft from leaving Glasgow following an instruction from UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

BAA Glasgow said the matter concerned the non-payment of charges to European air traffic control company Eurocontrol and to the UK's air traffic control company, Nats.

Zoom, which was founded by Scottish brothers John and Hugh Boyle, attempted to seek creditor protection by filing legal notices of intention to appoint an administrator in both the UK and Canada with the hopes of being able to carry on flights.

But the airline later said it had no option but to suspend all operations.

The airline, which is based at Gatwick, employs 450 staff in Canada and 260 in the UK.

Its flights operated from Gatwick, Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and Belfast, as well as Paris and Rome, to eight destinations in Canada, New York, San Diego, Fort Lauderdale and Bermuda.

The Boyle brothers said: "We deeply regret the fact that we have been forced to suspend all Zoom operations. It is a tragic day for our passengers and more than 600 staff.

"We have done everything we can to support the airline and left no stone unturned to secure a re-financing package that would have kept our aircraft flying."