Stranded Comtel passengers come home

Posted 22/11/2011

Passengers stranded in India when Comtel Air cancelled its flights last week are being returned home.

A spokesman for the CAA said that foreign office staff had confirmed passengers were no longer stranded.

The CAA had negotiated repatriation fares with BMI to return some of the 180 passengers to the UK while others had travelled within India to catch alternate flights.

Passengers were covered under the UK ATOL held by travel agency Skyjet travel in Essex which filed for bankruptcy last week.

A spokesman said: “We asked passengers to book flights with BMI and claim a refund from us on their return. If this is not possible, they should contact us.
”They can take other flights as long as it’s a reasonable cost.”

The Austrian airline, Comtel Air which launched cheap flights from Birmingham to Amritsar, via Vienna last month, cancelled its service last week.

It followed allegations that more than 180 passengers on a flight from India to Britain were forced to fork out more than £20,000 in cash to pay for fuel to allow the plane to complete the journey.

BBC reports say Comtel majority shareholder Bhupinder Kandra blamed travel agents for the problems, saying money had not been passed on to the airline.

Originally published 22 Nov 2011 at: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/398/f/5923/s/1a45fd50/l/0L0Stravelmole0N0Cstories0C1150A3350Bphp0Dmpnlog0F1/story01.htm