BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Six weeks after the bankruptcy of tour operator FTI, affected customers can now expect to receive compensation soon. The German Travel Security Fund, which covers package tours, will start the reimbursement process "shortly", a spokeswoman told the German Press Agency. This involves more than 250,000 canceled package tours.

The spokeswoman did not give an exact date for the start of payments. The specialist portal "fvw.de" had previously reported that it could be assumed that the refund options would be activated in the course of this week.

FTI, previously the third-largest German tour operator after Tui and DER Touristik, filed for insolvency at the beginning of June and shortly afterwards canceled all trips that had already been booked. The German Travel Security Fund protects payments already made for package tours against the insolvency of the tour operator. The protection does not apply to individually booked travel components such as pure hotel bookings./fjo/DP/mis