The collapse of tour operator, Goldtrail, is likely to leave thousands of holidaymakers waiting months for any kind of refund on holidays they have already booked. This will mean many will not be in a position to book another holiday with another travel agent this summer. For those already on holiday the Civil Aviation Authority says that it does not see any major disruption being experienced.

Over the weekend around half of the 16,000 currently on a break booked through Goldtrail were brought back to the UK. Also at the weekend, many people arriving at airports to set off on their holidays were turned back. In many cases this was without any warning.

It is still not clear why Goldtrail collapsed on Friday. One travel expert said that for a travel company to go into administration during the summer holiday period was extremely unusual. He added that most companies were flush with cash at the moment and it was the autumn when underperforming travel agencies usually became insolvent.

The collapse of Goldtrail will be good news for Thomas Cook and TUI Travel, the country’s remaining big names in the world of package holidays. JP Morgan Cazenove analyst, Tim Barrett, said that many of the 50,000 Goldtrail customers would rebook their holidays through either Thomas Cook or Tui Travel. He added that any reduction in capacity is likely to be good for business.

Before finding itself in the hands of the receivers last week, Goldtrail posted its 2009 audited annual accounts which showed a turnover of £54.4 million and pre-tax profits of £453,000