Stranded in Amritsar, air passengers asked to cough up extra cash for fuel

Britain-bound Comtel airline passengers stranded in Amritsar

Airlines have already begun charging for food, drinks, seat assignments and baggage. Now one is demanding that passengers cough up extra cash for fuel.

Hundreds of passengers travelling from India to Britain were stranded on Thursday in Amritsar by the charter airline Comtel, which was asking them to kick in money to cover the cost of fuel and fees.

Passengers would not be allowed to leave for Britain unless they paid Rs. 10,000 (about $200) each, Bhupinder Kandra, the airline's majority shareholder, told the BBC.

It was not clear if the passengers were stranded on the plane or at the airport.

But that incident came just days after 180 other travellers flying the same route were stranded on a Comtel plane at a layover in Vienna until they could raise more than £20,000 ($31,000) to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England.

Footage from the first Comtel airline incident broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 news showed a cabin crewmember telling passengers: “We need some money to pay for the fuel, to pay the airport, to pay for everything we need. If you want to go to Birmingham, you have to pay.”

Channel 4 news said the crew told the passengers they would have to come up with £24,000 ($38,000) between them. Some passengers said they were allowed to leave the plane to get to cash machines in Vienna to raise the money.

“We all got together, took our money out,” said Reena Rindi, who was aboard with her two-year-old daughter. “Children under two went free, my little one went free because she's under two. If we didn't have the money, they were making us go one by one outside, in Vienna, to get the cash out.”

The plane then took off and reached Birmingham.

Mr. Kandra, Comtel's majority shareholder, 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.

‘Not my problem'

“This is not my problem,” he said. “The problem is with the agents.”

But Mr. Kandra insisted that the company was solvent and that the “show will go on.”

“We have not run out of money,” he said. “We have enough.”

Airport officials in Birmingham, however, said on Thursday that Comtel's weekend flights had been cancelled.