Sun, Nov 20, 2011
And Not Just A Little ... How About $31,000
When a Comtel charter flight from Amritsar, India to Britain
landed in Vienna, where the airline is based, for fuel, the
passengers got a bit of a rude awakening. The airline said the
passengers in transit were going to have to pay for the fuel to
continue the trip.
The Associated Press reports that Britain's Channel 4 broadcast
a video in which a Comtel crew member is seen telling the
passengers they would have to kick in some cash if they wanted to
continue their trip to Birmingham, U.K. "We need some money to pay
the fuel, pay the airport, pay everything we need," the crewmember
said.
Passengers without cash in their pockets or purses were told to
deplane ... one at a time ... in order to get money from ATMs in
the airport. They were asked for about $205 each, but children
under two were allowed to continue without paying.
In all, the flight was delayed about six hours while the
passengers scraped together enough cash to get them flying again,
and they did eventually reach Birmingham.
The charter company told the AP that the problem was with travel
agents who booked passengers on the flight but did not pass the
money along to the airline. Comtel's parent company Bhupinder
Kandra insists that it is solvent, though a similar problem cropped
up Thursday when passengers on a flight that had not yet departed
Amritsar were required to pay an additional $200 before the flight
could take off.
Meanwhile, Birmingham Airport Officials said that all Comtel
flights for the weekend had been cancelled, though Kandra said all
flights would operate on schedule. India Today reports that more
than 600 people on four flights were thought to have been affected
by the issue.
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