Spanair airline goes bust, passengers strandedJanuary 28, 2012 - 14:51 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Passengers were stranded at Spanish airports Saturday, Jan 28, after airline Spanair abruptly went bust, canceling all its flights at short notice, AFP reported. "Faced with the lack of financial visibility for the coming months, the company has decided to cease its operations as a measure of caution and safety," Spanair said in a statement on Friday evening. Its last scheduled flight landed on Friday night, leaving rivals such as Iberia, Vueling and Easyjet to share out the passengers left stranded. Spanish media said at least 22,000 passengers were affected over the weekend but Spanair spokespeople were not immediately available to confirm this to AFP. A queue of 200 surprised passengers formed at Spanair counters at Barcelona airport on Friday evening shortly after the announcement. Airports authority AENA said Saturday morning everything was normal at Madrid's Barajas airport and Barcelona's El Prat, where special lounges had been allocated for Spanair customers. "Passengers are turning up at these zones and the other companies are putting them on flights," an AENA spokeswoman told AFP. She said 55 Spanair flights were scrapped at Madrid and 54 at Barcelona on Saturday alone, with a handful of flights cancelled at Palma de Mallorca and Gran Canaria. The company said in its statement Friday: "The Spanair management regrets this and apologises to all those people who are affected by this situation." Spanair, founded in 1986, had tried to survive by a tie-up with Qatar Airways which fell through. The Catalania regional authorities, which owns part of the company, said it was unable to increase its stake due to crisis budget cuts and EU limits. In 2008 one of Spanair's jets crashed on take-off at Madrid airport with the deaths of 154 people. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | Armenia-Qatar ties discussed in Doha The Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council met with the Deputy Secretary General of the National Security Council of Qatar. ARARAT special evening dedicated to Aznavour's 100th Anniv. On May 20 ARARAT legendary Armenian brandy, celebrated the centennial of Maestro Charles Aznavour with a special event. Surveying works underway in Armenia’s Kirants Surveying works are underway in the Armenian village of Kirants in the northern Tavush province. Armenia calls for prohibiting threats of attacks on nuclear facilities Armenia has raised the need for a treaty prohibiting attacks on nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes. |