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Air Madrid Shut Down

Thousands of Air Madrid passengers remain stranded in Spain and other locations, after the company announced bankruptcy Friday. The Spanish airliner stopped all its flights. The Spanish civilian aviation authority revoked the charter airliner`s charter in Saturday. The civil aviation authority said that Air Madrid was unable to cope with its many delays, which drastically hurt the company`s sales and reputation. The authority also added that the company suffered from security related problems.

Air Madrid is a charter airliner founded two years ago and mainly connected destinations in Spain and South America, as well as, some major destinations in Europe. In its "comunicado" the company blamed the Spanish government for the company`s collapse. The company says that the government`s announcement that due to continued delays the company`s license may be revoked on Tuesday caused a nearly complete end to ticket sales, which forced the company into a situation where it can no longer fly. Spanish National Radio said that nearly 300 thousand passengers will be affected by the cessation of Air Madrid flights. The company itself refused to say how many tickets to flights it will not fly, it has sold.

Air Madrid has been under heavy criticism in recent months due to perpetual delays in its flights, sometimes leaving passengers in Madrid`s international airport for days. A month ago, an Air Madrid flight from Madrid to Buenos Aires left Madrid over 24 hours late. The outraged passengers stormed the runway in protest. In another incident, passengers were forced to spend the night on a grounded plane in Valencia due to technical problems.