News | USA allgemein | 06.09.2024

Regarding the FTI insolvency – Here you will find all the important information

Following the insolvency application of FTI Touristik on June 3, 2024, the Munich District Court opened insolvency proceedings for FTI Touristik and other companies of the German FTI Group by decision on September 1, 2024. As your travel agency, we are still very happy to support you and have gathered the current status as well as all relevant facts, data, and contacts regarding the FTI insolvency for you.

WHAT WE WANT TO TELL YOU
We sincerely regret that you have been affected by the insolvency of FTI Touristik. It saddens and angers us that we could not prevent this from happening to you. This event has also hit our company unexpectedly and with serious consequences. Since FTI Touristik filed for insolvency on June 3, 2024, we have been doing our best to support and inform you as much as possible. As there were no legal or financial ties to the FTI Group, our company is, of course, not affected by FTI Touristik’s insolvency.

We have neither influence over the progress of the insolvency proceedings nor insight into the processes surrounding your booking. Therefore, we cannot answer questions on topics beyond our influence and reach. Like you, we only have access to the publicly available information. Nevertheless, we hope to support you as best as possible with the following summary. Please read through the information relevant to you carefully.


CUSTOMER DATA
To properly process your booking, we submitted personal data of our customers to FTI Touristik when the travel services were booked: first and last names and birthdates of all travelers, the private address of the booking party, and the contact phone numbers and email addresses provided to us. This procedure was necessary at all times, particularly for the direct payment process (transmitting payment data via paylink directly to FTI). Consequently, there is no obstacle to contacting the insolvency insurer or the insolvency administrator.

There is no connection between us, the insolvency administrator (IA) on one side, and the insolvency insurer, Deutscher Reisesicherungsfonds (DRSF), on the other. Therefore, we cannot inform you of which of your data FTI Touristik has shared, with whom, or when, nor will we receive any updates on when you will be contacted by the party handling your case (IA or DRSF).

On November 4, 2024, the insolvency administrator (IA) opened a portal for booking agencies (mainly travel agencies and portals) to check and supplement the customer data on affected bookings. For our agency, only four bookings (out of >2,600!) required additional data, such as titles or countries, which were added immediately. There is therefore no obstacle, and never has been, to the DRSF or IA contacting customers directly.


UPDATE ON THE INSOLVENCY PROCESS
The sale of business units has generated sufficient assets to begin an orderly insolvency process for FTI Touristik. The previously appointed provisional insolvency administrator, Axel Bierbach of the law firm Müller-Heydenreich Bierbach & Kollegen in Munich, has been assigned as administrator. Claims can now be registered for the insolvency table.

The majority of FTI Touristik's debt, totaling around one billion euros, consists of support and loans taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. The available assets face claims from approximately 350,000 creditors, including travelers, travel agencies, hoteliers, and other service providers, as well as banks and the German government’s Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF). Although the insolvency administrator, Axel Bierbach, cannot yet provide a precise estimate of the insolvency rate, he does not anticipate a large payout.


WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
All affected parties have already received written notification from the insolvency administrator. This included a PIN to register their claim on the case portal at https://fti-inso.de.

Creditors do not need to take any action before receiving the claim registration notice, says insolvency administrator Bierbach. Once the administrator's notice is received, customers who booked individual travel services (e.g., accommodations, hotels, or rental cars) with FTI Touristik and whose payments were not already refunded by the payment provider (e.g., credit card company or PayPal) should register their claims.

Customers who booked package holidays with FTI Touristik are advised to wait for the reimbursement of prepaid travel prices through the insolvency insurer Deutscher Reisesicherungsfonds (DRSF). This helps avoid any potential blocking of processes or double reimbursement that may need to be repaid later.

In November 2024, the Deutscher Reisesicherungsfonds (DRSF) expanded the reimbursement process for those affected by the FTI collapse to include an option for mail submissions: consumers who do not use digital communication channels can now submit reimbursement applications by post, according to the fund's announcement. FTI package holiday customers who have not yet received an email notification may contact the DRSF to register for the postal reimbursement process. They are advised first to call the DRSF service hotline at +49 (0)30/78 95 47 70. Their contact details will be recorded, and they will then receive the required application documents by post to start the reimbursement process.

Applicants already contacted by the DRSF who prefer a postal process will also soon be informed by mail. As with the digital process, applicants must include the required documents, such as booking confirmations and payment receipts, in their response letter. A copy of an ID card is also required for identity verification.


HELP, CONTACT, AND FURTHER INFORMATION
Do you have further questions about FTI Touristik’s insolvency, need assistance, or require more detailed information? Below are some helpful links and contact information for you:

Deutscher Reisesicherungsfonds (DRSF)
Overview of information Link
Current status of the reimbursement process Link
Application to join the reimbursement process Link
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions Link
Consumers who do not find answers to their questions on these pages can call the DRSF service hotline at +49 (0)30 78954770 Monday to Friday from 8 am to 10 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 6 pm.

FTI Group
Information on insolvency Link

Insolvency Administration MHB Müller-Heydenreich Bierbach and Colleagues
Information on the insolvency process Link
For questions about claim registration, please email fti@mhbk.de or call +49 89 2525-4000.


Status: 08.11.2024 | AMO