Futura International Airways Mallorca-based charter firm BUST

Mallorca-based charter firm, Futura International Airways, suspended its flights yesterday and has filed for administration. Futura, which is one of Europe's biggest medium-haul charter flight companies, runs flights between Palma and a number of major British towns and cities, including Belfast, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bournemouth and Glasgow. Like many of its competitors, it has been badly hit this year by rising fuel prices despite posting a 14% increase in turnover in 2007 to €334.6 million euros. Notwithstanding, company directors hope to resume normal operations today, and have been given until the end of the week to present contingency plans to enable the Spanish Transport ministry to make a definitive decision about the company's future. These plans, which will need to be approved by the trades unions, are thought to include a 50% reduction in the total workforce of 1,200 and the same reduction in its high season fleet of 22 planes. Futura was founded in 1989 in a joint venture also involving Aer Lingus, which sold off the balance of its shares last year having offloaded the majority back in 2002.