The airline XL.com, the UK's third-largest travel operator, that collapsed this week leaving 85,000 tourists stranded throughout Europe, leaves a juicy domain name potentially up for grabs.
And on airlines, BA's chief executive Willie Walsh has said up to 30 more airlines will go bust before Christmas. Given quite a few in the domain name industry travel regularly, it may pay to be vigilant when booking flights with the precarious state of many airlines.
"It's an ever-growing list," Kenny Ezard, of Airline Business magazine told The Independent. "It will be the ones that don't have strong balance sheets, probably the start-ups. There will also be a lot more consolidation, which is already happening in Europe."
There are even bookmakers taking bets on which airline will be next! If one was inclined, "Alitalia, the Italian national airline, could be the next high-profile victim of the downturn, having been given one more day by the Italian government yesterday to come to an agreement with trades unions," reports The Independent. "Ministers said that if the unions did not sign up to a rescue plan for the ailing airline its assets would be liquidated."