Nearly 500 tourists were stranded in NW Crete, after Primera Air suspended operations and declared bankruptcy on Monday night, ANA reports.
The tourists were put up at hotels in Chania on Monday night as authorities have been trying to place them on other departing flights.
Riga-based Primera Air provided charter flights to and from the Ioannis Daskalogiannis airport of Chania on Crete island Mondays and Fridays.
Overall, several thousand travellers have been left stranded after the budget airline announced they would be ceasing operations and filing for bankruptcy.
The Icelandic airliner, based in Copenhagen and operating since 2003, shared a farewell note to their customers on their website Sunday night informing them that flights would be suspended as of today and to check for updates online in the upcoming days. Moreover, they advised clients they would not be able to reach the company by phone or e-mail.
Angry passengers, who claim they were not given any notice about their flights being cancelled, took to Twitter to vent their frustration over the sudden announcement. Some passengers, who were tweeting from the boarding gate, said they were notified just before their flights.
Primera routes
The airline announced last month that it planned to launch routes from Madrid to New York, Boston and Toronto next year at an introductory price of 149 euros ($172) each way.
It also announced in September plans for direct flights from Frankfurt to New York, Boston, Toronto and Montreal from next year.
London’s Stansted Airport, which has been trying to promote transatlantic routes, urged Primera passengers not to travel to the airport.
The collapse comes exactly a year after Britain’s Monarch Airlines went under after falling victim to intense competition for flights and a weaker pound.
Primera was forced to cancel flights earlier this year, citing delays in receiving aircraft from Airbus, but has faced growing complaints about poor service and late refunds.
Its collapse will be a blow to plane manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, which had both used the airline as a showcase for new strategies designed to use data analytics to help airlines run smoothly and expand their own high-margin services revenue.
Read more at euronews.com
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