Some of the passengers who have flight bookings with stricken carrier Comtel Air may not be financially covered.
The Austrian-registered airline yesterday cancelled services in and out of the UK this weekend after passengers on a flight from the Indian city of Amritsar to Birmingham via Vienna claimed they were forced to pay for refuelling a plane.
As of yesterday, some UK passengers were still stranded abroad, while others were battling to get their money back after being 'held to ransom' on the tarmac at the Austrian airport earlier this week.
Only one of the two Comtel flights from Amritsar to Birmingham via Vienna took off last weekend. Passengers that did said they had to raise £20,000 to fund the rest of the trip from Vienna to Birmingham.
They were stuck at the airport for six hours and the flight that should have got back to Birmingham on Saturday only arrived on Tuesday morning.
A Birmingham airport spokeswoman yesterday said that Comtel had told them that this Saturday's and Sunday's Birmingham-Amritsar return flights via Vienna had been cancelled. It was later revealed that today's 4.15pm flight from Birmingham-Amritsar had also been axed.
'They said we would know in the next couple of days about flights after that,' the spokeswoman added.
Passengers who booked for the Comtel flights as part of a package would be protected by the Air Travel Organisers' Licensing (ATOL) scheme run by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) .
However, both the CAA and travel organisation ABTA stressed that some of those who had booked flight-only deals may not be financially covered.
The airport spokeswoman said: 'Anyone due to travel with the airline is advised to contact the travel company they have booked the flights with for advice. Those passengers overseas need to ascertain whether their travel arrangements are protected by the Atol scheme.
'We expect the airline to clarify the situation regarding its flight programme going forward within the next few days.'
Yesterday, the CAA said Essex-based travel company Skyjet, which sold flights to Amritsar from Birmingham on Comtel Air, had ceased trading.
The CAA said that Skyjet, whose parent company was Astonbury Ltd, was an ATOL holder and that the CAA would be able to get home around 200 people currently overseas with Skyjet.
The CAA also said that passengers who had booked ATOL-protected trips with Skyjet but had not travelled would be able to claim a full refund from the CAA.
It added that it would ensure that all Skyjet customers due to fly home in the coming days were able to return to the UK, though this is unlikely to be on the flights they expected to return on.
Further information will be placed on the ATOL website in the coming days to let people know how and when they should expect to return to the UK.
The authority added that all forward bookings with Skyjet were now cancelled and customers were advised not to go to the airport.
Comtel Air's director of passenger services Bhunpinder Kandra said earlier this week: 'I have heard what happened, it shouldn't have happened, and I will investigate why it happened.
'The people who had to pay the money will receive a refund.'
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