Passengers pay extra in order to fly

AIRLINES have already begun charging for food, drinks, seat assignments and baggage. Now one is demanding that passengers cough up extra cash for fuel.

Hundreds of passengers traveling from India to Britain were stranded Thursday in Amritsar, India, by the charter airline Comtel, which was asking them for more money to cover fuel and fees.

Passengers will not be allowed to leave for Britain unless they pay US$200 each, Bhupinder Kandra, the airline's majority shareholder, told the BBC.

It was not clear if passengers were stranded on the plane or at the airport. That incident came just days after 180 other travelers flying the same route were stranded on a Comtel plane at a layover in Vienna until they could raise more than US$31,000 to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England.

Footage from the first Comtel airline incident broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 news showed a cabin crew member telling passengers, "we need some money to pay the fuel, to pay the airport, to pay everything we need. If you want to go to Birmingham, you have to pay."

Channel 4 news said crew told the passengers they would have to raise $38,000 between them. Some passengers said they were allowed to leave the plane to get to cash machines in Vienna to raise the money.

The plane then took off and reached Birmingham.

Kandra, Comtel's majority shareholder, told the Associated Press from Vienna that travel agents had taken the passengers' money before the planes left but not passed it to the airline.

"This is not my problem.The problem is with the agents."

Kandra insists that the company was solvent."We have not run out of money," he said. Airport officials in Birmingham, however, said Thursday that Comtel's weekend flights had been cancelled. AP