BMI offers flights to stranded passengers

Passengers left stranded in India after airline Comtel cancelled its flights back to Birmingham have been rescued by another operator, it emerged today. BMI has offered the Comtel customers reduced price flights back to Heathrow.

For two weeks running Comtel has cancelled its return flights from Amritsar to Birmingham after tour operator Skyjet went bust, leaving passengers stranded overseas.

Passengers first became aware of a problem when around 180 people, some from Sandwell and Wolverhampton, were asked to pay an extra £20,000 to complete their journey home to Birmingham airport.

The delayed flight had made a routine fuel stop in Vienna when the airline realised it could not afford to fly home.

Since then Comtel has not run any of its flights from Amritsar to Birmingham, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded in the Punjab.

BMI spokesman Rick Wheeldon said today the airline runs three flights a week from Amritsar to Heathrow, and since the problems with Comtel emerged, it has operated seven flights.

He said: "We have flown 300 people who were stranded due to the cancelled Comtel flights home." Comtel has again cancelled its flights this weekend. Planes due to leave Birmingham at 5.40pm on Saturday and 5.50pm on Sunday to Amritsar via Vienna have been cancelled.

Computer shop worker Dalbir Panesar told how his wife Harpal Kaur, aged 42, and the couple's 16-year-old son were left stranded in India after the collapse of Skyjet.

They eventually arrived back home a week after they should have done.

Mr Panesar, aged 49, of Atlas Grove, West Bromwich, said today: "We just had to pay for new flights.

"We had paid £950 for the ticket there and back and we had to pay an extra £550 to get them home.

"We are now applying to see if we can get our money back. I am not convinced we will do though. It was a horrible experience for my wife and son.

"Something needs to be done to stop this kind of thing happening."