Another European Airline Bites The Dust, Stranding Holiday Passengers
Your holiday air travel may have been a little difficult, but at least your airline is likely still in business for your trip back home. That’s not the case for many unlucky passengers that were counting on Spain’s Air Comet to fly them back from holiday trips. The airline shut things down last week, stranding passengers and providing pink slips to more than 600 employees. The whole problem started because the airline kind of didn’t pay the bills for its leased airplanes—oops!
The airline primarily flew to Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and other countries in the region to and from Madrid. That means there were passengers stuck all over the place. Thankfully, charter flights were provided to help out the stranded passengers, but at first only about half of the travelers got the chance to get out of the airport. Hopefully a few more private planes will be shuttled back and forth to get the remaining passengers where they need to be so they can at least welcome 2010 without too much stress. We really feel for the stranded passengers and wish them luck with this whole ordeal.
If this sounds like a familiar story, that’s because it is. Earlier this year we’ve seen similar situations with two other European carriers. SkyEurope and FlyGlobespan had to shut off the engines without too much warning as well. Fortunately in those situations, other airlines including Ryanair were able to offer rescue fares for stranded passengers. Too bad Ryanair doesn’t offer international flights to help out the Air Comet travelers. However, maybe we’ll finally see some cheap overseas flights on Ryanair in 2010—we’ll just need to pack a snack or two.
Related Stories:
· Spanish Airline Is Grounded [AP, via Google]
· Half of Stranded Air Comet Passengers Rescued [AFP, via Google]
· Airline News coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Wikimedia]
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