(TORONTO STAR) Horrified passengers with Austrian airline Comtel Air say they were told if they didn’t come up with thousands of dollars in gas money their flight wasn't going anywhere.
An unapologetic shareholder with the charter airline confirmed Thursday its passengers will be paying for more than their drinks if travel agents don’t come up with the money Comtel is owed.
Angry passengers travelling from Amritsar, India, to Britain found themselves stranded in Vienna where the plane was being refuelled. They were informed that they had to come up with 20,000 pounds (about $32,300 American dollars) if they wanted to get back to Birmingham.
“This money has to be paid back (to the passengers), but it will not be paid by me or by my company, Comtel Air,” Kandra told the BBC. He added that there was another stranded flight in Amritsar where each passenger is being asked to cough up 10,000 Indian rupees (about $200) if they wanted to get back to Britain.
“This will be collected by my people there and then the passengers can come home,” Kandra said.
Some of the 180 Comtel passengers stuck at Vienna described their ordeal for Britain’s Channel 4 news.
Dalvinder Batra, from Oldbury, West Midlands, said: “It is absolutely disgusting. There are still people stuck out there.”
“Our friends are still stuck in Amritsar. They are now starting to resort to other carriers to get home. I’ve spoken to one friend who has just paid $400 for a BMI flight back to London.”
Ranbir Dehal, from Wolverhampton, said: “We were escorted to the cash point to take money out. They said there was a deficit of nearly 24,000 euros, and they gave us receipts.”
Reena Rindi, who was aboard with her 2-year-old daughter, said: “We wanted to go home. We’d been stranded for about three to four days. Who was going to take us home?”
Kandra told the Associated Press from Vienna that travel agents had taken the passengers' money before the planes left but had not passed it on to the airline.
“This is not my problem," he said. "The problem is with the agents.”
But Kandra insisted Thursday the company was still solvent.
“We have not run out of money,” he said. “We have enough.”
Airport officials in Birmingham said Thursday that Comtel's upcoming flights this weekend had been canceled, but Kandra insisted all would be operating as normal.
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