Thousands of passengers have been left stranded after budget airline Primera Air which offered cheap flights between the UK and US has gone bust.
The Danish carrier confirmed on its website last night that it would be suspending all flights and filed for bankruptcy protection but has so far not gave any information about refunds.
In a statement, directors say Primera could not get financing from its bank and had spent more than more than £26million ($34.7million) leasing planes and rebuilding one with severe corrosion.
Budget airline Primera Ai, pictured, which offered cheap flights between the UK and US has gone bust
It said: ‘On this sad day we are saying goodbye to all of you.’
The number of Primera Air passengers left stuck by the collapse is reported to be in the thousands, while those who have booked on tours have been urged to contact their agents.
Routes include flights out of Stansted Airport to Washington, Newark, Boston and Toronto, as well as a base out of Birmingham airport.
Stansted Airport said this morning that travellers due to fly with the airline should not travel to the airport, from which Primera also operated flights to Spain.
Birmingham Airport referred customers to the Civil Aviation Authority advice, which urged those expecting return flights to the UK with the operator to make fresh arrangements home.
Some of those affected by the collapse of the airline have also been taking to Twitter to share their stories.
Some holidaymakers only found out online that their flights with Primera Air wouldn’t be taking place
Lindsay Learns said: ‘My mother and I were told our flight was cancelled at the airport 35mins after we were supposed to board the plane. PEOPLE WERE LINED UP TO BOARD. We then found out #PrimeraAir went bankrupt. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!’
Nikki Luxford wrote: ‘Just found out through BBC that my flights to @primeraair have been cancelled. Devastated. Holiday of a lifetime over! @BBC_HaveYourSay #liquidation #Administration’
Kimberly Bebout tweeted: ‘I’m now stuck in DC with no way to get to Stansted and still make my connecting flight on time. What am I to do about my trip to Italy with non-refundable reservations @primeraair??? My one vacation this entire year just had to start today.’
Passengers affected by the collapse of Primera Air also took to Twitter to share their experience
While Wendy Bedding added: ‘I’m supposed to be flying home tonight from Dulles to Stansted, I’ve had no information if I’m flying or not….what is going on.’
Canadian Tara Noe and her husband Remy were due to fly to Toronto with the airline next week for a two-week trip to see family members and so she could take part in her first marathon in the city.
The 42-year-old, who now lives in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, said she is in ‘shock’ over the announcement, and that the service from start to finish has been ‘horrendous’.
‘You can’t contact them, they have shut down the phone lines and the website is inaccessible. Everything is shut down, you can’t get anywhere,’ she told the Press Association.
Discovering the news online as the couple headed to bed on Monday night, she said it has been ‘chaos’ since.
After spending £750 on their return flights, the couple have had to fork out another £368 for her replacement ticket, with her family stepping in to cover the £400 for her husband’s fare.
‘We were looking to save money using them,’ she said, revealing they have never flown with the airline before.
The Primera Air website this morning had a message, which confirmed that it had ceased operations
‘It has actually been a nightmare, I have had a lot of problems with the airline since. I tried to change the date on my ticket and it took three weeks.
‘It was terrible … I had a bad feeling about these guys, I really did. There was something about this airline that was not going well at all, you could tell … I should’ve switched.’
After spending more than two years losing four stone in weight and training to take part in her first marathon, Mrs Noe said she is glad she will still make it to the start line on October 21.
‘But there is still the fallout of this,’ she said.
‘I still have to try and find out if we can get our money back, or if we are going to spend the next month or two paying back this money. I don’t even know.’
Primera started as a charter airline in Iceland and became one of several budget airlines to offer transatlantic service in recent years, flying to Newark, New Jersey; Washington; Boston and Toronto.
This month, Primera touted new flights next summer between Madrid and North America starting at £130 ($172).
The collapse of the airline comes almost a year to the day after travel firm Monarch went to the wall, leading to the redundancies of nearly 2,000 employees.
Primera Air’s collapse will be a blow to planemakers Airbus and Boeing, which had both used the airline as a showcase for new strategies designed to use data analytics to help carriers run smoothly and expand their own high-margin services revenue.
Primera Air’s collapse will be a blow to planemakers Airbus and Boeing, which had both used the airline as a showcase for new strategies
Primera was also at the centre of a battle between plane giants to expand the range and performance of their best-selling single-aisle jets, attracting new players to the lucrative transatlantic market.
It was a launch customer for Airbus’s A321LR, the longest-range version of the A321neo narrow-body jet.
Demand for such jets has helped shaped the strategies of planemakers in recent years, with Boeing looking to counter with a new mid-sized model next year.
Primera took delivery of its first leased A321neo from General Electric leasing unit GECAS in April.
But in June it said it had been forced to postpone plans for flights from Birmingham, England, to New York and Toronto because of ‘severe delays’ in receiving Airbus A321neo planes.
Airbus has had problems delivering the planes due mainly to engine delays and on Friday Reuters reported that it faced quality problems at the Hamburg plant where A321neo jets are made.