Another online flight agency goes to the wall. This time based in Hong Kong. We used to see this heavily advertised on television and it was recently owned by an Australian online flight agency.
Hong Kong based travel agency Zuji can no longer operate as a business, its owners allowing its travel agency licence to expire.
Hong Kong’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau confirmed that the company’s licence expired last Wednesday and the company had not sought a renewal, South China Morning Post reported.
“Zuji is no longer a licensed travel agent and cannot continue to operate travel agent business in Hong Kong, but the company has the responsibility to properly handle all booked travel services,” a government spokesperson said.
The company reportedly has more than 50 customers waiting for refunds totalling HK$250,000 (AU$44,350), which, according to a Facebook post, are delayed due to “technical difficulties”.
Zuji has told the Travel Agents Registry, the government-run licensing body, that it would honour air tickets and hotel bookings made before it recently took down its own website.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) suspended Zuji’s right to buy and sell air tickets last year as it came to light that the company owed an undisclosed sum of money to airlines, which SCMP has reported as being since “recovered”. While the company could still sell air tickets, it could not buy them directly from carriers. However, an IATA spokesperson advised the SCMP that Zuji’s accreditation was terminated.
Australia’s Webjet announced the sale of Zuji Hong Kong and Zuji Singapore to its current owners in November 2016 after acquiring it in 2013. Mention of Zuji is still appearing on Webjets website and states that they stopped servicing their bookings in June 2018? There were a lot of negative comments about Zuji before all this happened. One can also see that they used the same method of operation whereby they charge enormous fees for changes and cancellation.
