Passengers stranded as Flyglobespan grounded flights without warning

Thousands of air travellers are rearranging Christmas flight itineraries today after the UK-based budget carrier Flyglobespan stopped trading yesterday.

A rescue mission is currently underway to cater stranded Flyglobespan passengers after scheduled flights were cancelled last night. The airline company had operated flights from airports Aberdeen, Belfast, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester.

Around 5,000 tourists are expected to fly using the airline to and from foreign destinations during the coming days. The low cost carrier ran trips to Florida, Canada, Egypt and several European cities.

Ryanair had quickly responded to the emergency, saying that it will offer ‘rescue fares’ to affected passengers at Prestwick and Edinburgh airports, where flight routes include Tenerife, Palma, Malga, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Faro and Alicante.

The Consumer Protection Group’s deputy director, David Moesli, informed that abroad travellers who had booked the tour package from the airline’s business partner Globespan are protected by the Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL) insurance scheme. He said that Globespan customers will be booked instead to flights operated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to fly them back to the UK.

All Flyglobespan flights were grounded without warning last night after the low cost airline failed to obtain a multi-million rescue package. A month ago, a Globespan spokesperson denied the allegations that the company was on the verge of administration. And just a couple of days ago, Chairman Tom Dalrymple said that he was in no doubt that an investment package would be approaching.

Flyglobespan, which served 24 destinations in Africa, Europe and North America, had expanded aggressively during the previous months. This year, the budget airline had carried over 1.5 million travellers and operated around 12,000 flights.