Some 100 passengers expecting to fly to Canada have been left stranded at Belfast International Airport after the collapse of a low-fare airline.
The UK and Canada-based firm grounded all flights last night as it prepared to go into administration. A flight to Toronto due to leave Belfast shortly after 5pm today was listed as cancelled on the airport’s website.
Zoom, which operated from five British airports, blamed its financial difficulties on a massive jump in fuel bills as a result of the high cost of oil.
Passengers on both sides of the Atlantic face spending hundreds on alternative flights to return home.
The airline’s cash crisis became apparent on Wednesday follow the grounding of a Zoom flight from Paris at Calgary airport in Canada.
Glasgow airport was yesterday instructed by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority to detain a Halifax-bound flight over the non-payment of charges.
Passengers also began queueing for a later flight to Vancouver which never left the ground.
Travellers were told of the company’s collapse as they continued to wait into the evening.
Zoom, founded by Scottish brothers John and Hugh Boyle, said it had attempted to secure a re-financing package that would have kept its aircraft flying.
The company has already managed to rebook more than 3,000 passengers and will run an additional flight next Mondayfrom Toronto to London and from London to Toronto on Tuesday.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said there were about 4,500 British passengers abroad and approximately 60,000 passengers with forward bookings with Zoom Airlines Limited and Zoom Airlines Inc.
Zoom said it expected the vast majority of affected passengers would be able to secure alternative flights and will be entitled to refunds.
It added that 80 per cent of its passenger bookings were made using credit cards or through travel operators and both methods carried a high degree of protection.
The airline said an estimated 40,000 passengers had made bookings with Zoom over the next year, the majority of which were for 2009 departures.
Zoom chairman Hugh Boyle said: “We have been in contact with other airlines, including BA, Virgin and FlyGlobespan in particular, and they have made clear the availability of alternative flights. We have also listed on the www.flyzoom.com website a list of other airlines which offer alternative services on routes where Zoom operated.”
Mr Boyle added: “We would like to reassure people that yesterday every possible effort was made to save the airline and safeguard flights and it was only very late in the day when the actions of suppliers and creditors made it impossible to continue.”
The airline is based at Gatwick and employs around 450 staff in Canada and 260 in Britain.
The collapse of Zoom comes in the same week as Mayo-based travel firm Ronane Travel/Great Escapes folded, leaving 140 Irish holidaymakers seeking to secure their passage home from Crete and hundreds more attempting to make their way home from Spain.
Additional reporting PA