Air Madrid has suspended all of its flights leaving thousands of
passengers stranded over Christmas.
It is reported between 200,000 and 300,000 passengers could be
abandoned as a result of the airline's action. Its main destinations
are Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo and Mexico.
The independent carrier is blaming its actions on a development
ministry threat to suspend its licence.
The budget airline said ticket sales had fallen dramatically since the
announcement from the development ministry and suppliers had refused it
credit.
The airline said: "Air Madrid has decided to suspend its activities
from today.
"The development ministry has managed to completely destroy Air
Madrid's commercial image and has placed our company in a very serious
crisis which prevents us from carrying on our work."
No-one was available to comment at the ministry, which is responsible
for transport policy and made the threat to Air Madrid after a series
of long delays in flight departures and near-riots at airports.
The delays of up to 60 hours resulted in heated protests at airports
and forced some passengers to spend the night sleeping on their
aircraft while waiting for it to take off.
The airline said the vast majority of its suppliers were refusing to
provide goods and services on credit because of the wide media coverage
of the ministry's threat.
The ministry said that Air Madrid had not fully carried out an action
plan to cut delays, saying it would have to present new information to
support its case to keep flying.
In response, the airline promised to cut its flights by 20 per cent,
scrap some routes and offer discounts to delayed passengers.
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