Passengers spell out impact of Primera Air collapse

Citing how “several unforeseen misfortunate events severely affected” its financial standing, at midnight on October 1 the company ended 14 years of operations.

Holidaymaker Sam Hyde, from Oxford, flew to Malaga from Birmingham last week with RyanAir and was due to fly back with Primera Air on October 5.

He told the Press Association he has not received any information from Primera Air about the cancellation, and found out the company had gone bust after he received a text message from his father-in-law.

The 48-year-old, who booked the trip with his wife, Lena Hyde, for their 10th wedding anniversary, said: “It sounds like they (Primera) didn’t have much choice.

“I feel worse for the employees who lost their jobs last night.

“At least we’re stranded somewhere sunny but we’ll have to find another flight ourselves in the meantime, which might be difficult given there will be lots of people stranded too.”

Mr Hyde, who said his flights cost £140 per person, added: “We’d never heard of the airline before – I guess that should have been a warning.”

Jeff Pitcher and his wife Kelly, 53, were due to fly from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Newark Liberty International in New Jersey with the airline on Monday evening.

The 55-year-old said they arrived at the airport three hours early, checked in and were sat waiting to board when they saw it was delayed.

He told the Press Association that rumours then began to circulate about the collapse of the airline, before it was announced their flight had been cancelled.

Passengers were then handed a letter explaining that the company had entered into the administration process.

Describing how there were two full Primera Air flights which had been waiting to board, one to Toronto and another to New Jersey, he said he thought there was going to be a riot.

“People were pretty upset,” he said. “No-one knew what was going on.

“Obviously they (Primera Air) knew this was going to happen, and they just let thousands of people around Europe just sit in the airport.”

Revealing how there were people yelling and crying, he praised the “amazing” efforts of some Primera Air staff who tried to help those affected, despite having lost their jobs.

The couple from Ohio, America, who have been in Europe for a week, have now booked onto another flight from Paris to New Jersey that is due to fly on Wednesday at a cost of more than £770.

He said the whole process was handled so poorly by the company that it is “laughable”, and that it has made them think twice about booking with the cheapest airline option again.

Caroline Allen booked return flights to New York with the airline late last week so she and her husband James could visit friends in the US to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The 28-year-old from Chelmsford, Essex, said: “What’s the most annoying for me is that they took our money knowing their current financial situation.

“We’ve had zero communication from them. We only found out through the news.”

The couple paid £250 each for their return flights.

Mrs Allen added: “Luckily we paid on a credit card so we can get our money back but I think it’s going to be a lot trickier for people who booked on debit card.”

Canadian Tara Noe and her husband Remy were due to fly to Toronto with the airline next week for a two-week trip to see family members. She was also set to take part in her first marathon in the city.

The 42-year-old, who now lives in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, said she is in “shock” over the announcement, and that the service from start to finish has been “horrendous”.

“It has actually been a nightmare, I have had a lot of problems with the airline since. I tried to change the date on my ticket and it took three weeks.

“You can’t contact them, they have shut down the phone lines and the website is inaccessible. Everything is shut down, you can’t get anywhere,” she said.

Discovering the news online as the couple headed to bed on Monday night, she said it has been “chaos” since.

After spending £750 on their return flights, the couple have had to fork out another £368 for her replacement ticket, with her family stepping in to cover the £400 for her husband’s fare.

“We were looking to save money using them,” she said, revealing they have never flown with the airline before.

“It has actually been a nightmare, I have had a lot of problems with the airline since. I tried to change the date on my ticket and it took three weeks.

“It was terrible … I had a bad feeling about these guys, I really did. There was something about this airline that was not going well at all, you could tell … I should’ve switched.”

After spending more than two years losing four stone in weight and training to take part in her first marathon, Mrs Noe said she is glad she will still make it to the start line on October 21.

“But there is still the fallout of this,” she said.

“I still have to try and find out if we can get our money back, or if we are going to spend the next month or two paying back this money. I don’t even know.”