This is like the airlines’ version of The Blacklist’ or, at the very least, wearing the Scarlett Letter.

Travel agents and advisors have been told to put the ‘stop sale’ designation on nine airlines from virtually every corner of the world, according to the aviation blog GodSaveThePoints.

A ‘stop sale’ in the airline industry is almost exactly what you think. Travel agencies can no longer issue tickets to carriers due to circumstances, including a pandemic or dropped insurance coverage. The blog noted that not all agents necessarily comply with a ‘stop sale.’

The nine airlines just added to stop sale include Air Malta, Air Baltic, Cathay Pacific, Korean Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Norwegian, TUI, Virgin Australia and Vietnam Airlines.

Those airlines are either temporarily suspending some or all flights, and or that there are solvency concerns as to whether the airline will go bankrupt and leave the travel agency and their clients stranded. For some airlines, these are legitimate concerns.

Travel agents offer financial and booking protections that help customers when plans change or when an airline has unforeseen circumstances, and a “stop sale” typically means that an underlying insurance policy or contingency agreement has been pulled for the airline in question.

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