Air travellers face more flight cancellations and delays

PA

There are fears that travellers will face cancellations and delays this summer as several airlines face financial struggles.

The Sunday Times reports that, last week, India's largest airline, Jet Airways, cancelled international flights to destinations in the Gulf, amid rumours of a financial crisis.

The airline said that the 47 long-term cancellations were for "operational reasons".

Jet's main rival, Kingfisher airlines, is operating just 28 of its fleet of 64 aircraft. Debts of £819m mean that it has cancelled up to 65 domestic flights per day since mid-February and can only buy fuel with cash. Banks have refused to lend the airline £252m, and it is now trying to sell a stake to parent company BA.

Kingfisher say that passengers whose flights are cancelled will be informed by telephone or email and say that they "will either refund the ticket price or make reasonable endeavour for alternate travel arrangements, as per the choice of the guest."

The collapse of Air Australia has also cast a shadow over the holiday plans of up to 200,000 travellers in Britain due to travel with Strategic Airlines. Strategic, which is a charger carrier that operates flights to Cyprus and the Greek Islands on behalf of companies such as Olympic Holidays and Mark Warner, is 49 per cent owned by Air Australia.

However, the company says it is not affected by the collapse of Air Australia. The Commercial Director, Neill Huston, told the Sunday Times: "The majority shareholding of Strategic Airlines is and always has been in the hands of European-based entities. The failure in Australia will not impact on Strategic Airlines or its future plans."

David Wilson of Olympic Holidays told the newspaper: "If anything should happen to Strategic - and we don't believe it will - we're fully protected and will arrange alternative flights or refunds."

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