Brexit continues to take a toll on British chalet holiday companies with long established specialists Alpine Action announcing it has ceased trading for chalet holidays as of 07-May-2024.
“Despite our very best efforts to overcome the significant commercial challenges, we have come to the point where we can no longer continue. …We offer our sincere apologies and best wishes to all of you,” a statement from the company’s directors reads.
Alpine Action has established more than three decades ago in the early 1990s and operated five catered ski chalets in Meribel. In their closure notice they say that they are contacting everyone who had booked a 2024/25 season holiday with them to arrange a full refund of deposits paid.
Alpine Action join a growing list of British ski travel businesses that have gone out of business since Brexit.
“Unfortunately, the changes brought about by Brexit to the ski chalet holiday sector has taken another great British business,” said Angus Kinloch, managing director of ski holiday agency Ski Line who added that Alpine Action were the second tour operator who agreed to appoint them as agents after skiline.co.uk was established in 1995.
“Skiers want chalets with a flight and transfers included, ATOL packages continue to be the most popular choice for groups, wanting a more private ski holiday, that hotels offer,” added Mal Sargeant, a senior sales advisor at Ski Line, adding “You can now count the ATOL bonded ski chalet operators that remain on one hand.”
The decreasing supply of chalet holidays available through companies offering ATOL protection – meaning customers are fully financially covered in the event of company failure – inevitably means holidays for next winter are being snapped up fast…
Nick Morgan, director of Le Ski, one of that handful of ATOL licenced ski chalet companies, trading for more than 40 years and operating 32 chalets in snowsure French resorts, commented,
“It is undeniable that Brexit has had a huge effect on the classic British chalet holiday market. Flight inclusive catered chalet holidays from fully bonded tour operators are now extremely rare and the choice is getting narrower each year. Some companies have morphed into “accommodation providers” but the truth is that you will not get your money back if they go bust – and if your airline changes or cancels your flight it is up to you to deal with new flights (at what cost?) and new transfer arrangements. Nobody wants that hassle and so operating our own planes from London and Manchester with direct transfers to Courchevel, La Tania and Val d’Isère is part of the reason why we had record guests numbers last winter in our catered chalets.”
Angus Kinloch confirmed demand is stronger than ever for the few remaining companies that can find a way through the trading difficulties caused by Brexit, saying,
“Demand for catered ski chalets from groups remains strong but our clients show that their preference is for an ATOL bonded package with flights and transfers included. But unfortunately, very few ATOL bonded chalet specialists remain. Our bookings for next season are even stronger than last winter, the first full winter after Covid, which was a sales record, we didn’t think would ever be broken.”
