The Spanish government suspended the operating licence of AIR COMET yesterday, after mounting debts grounded its fleet on Tuesday evening. The Spanish Airline said Tuesday it had suspended all its flights because of financial difficulties that are preventing it from paying its debts, ruining travel plans for thousands of passengers. Air Comet, which specializes in flights to Latin America, attributed its problems to a decision last Friday by a commercial court in London that enabled Nord Bank of Germany to to seize 9 of its 13 aircraft and to undertake a foreclosure procedure against the Airline. Spanish press reports said the Airline owed the bank around 14 million euros. The Airline said the court decision meant that the carrier was unable to operate its aircraft. Air Commet employed nearly 700 people and carried 1500 passengers a day on flights from Madrid to Bogata, Buenos Aires, Havana, Lima, Quito and Guayaquil in South America. The sudden shutdown of the carrier has some passengers stranded at Airports in Spain and Latin America threatening to go on hunger strike. A total of about 7000 passengers are said to be stranded with the grounding of the airline. "No-one has given us any information. Nothing has been said to us. We paid for our tickets and we are waiting without any information," a woman at Madrid's Barajas airport told local media. Dozens of angry Air Comet customers blocked the entrance to Barajas's Terminal 1. They described the company's management as "thieves", according a media report. And about half a dozen passengers from Colombia and Ecuador are reported to have already begun a hunger strike, while demanding to be flown home.
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