Passengers stranded as airline collapses

A budget airline that began offering long-haul flights from UK airports including Stansted to the US earlier this year has collapsed.

Primera Air said it was ceasing all operations at midnight on Monday after 14 years of operations.

Two flights to Washington and New York due to leave Stansted on Monday night have been grounded.

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that Primera had ceased operations.

The Icelandic-owned airline said it had failed to secure long-term financing, meaning it had “no choice” but to file for bankruptcy.

Primera’s decision to start competing with other low-cost long-haul operators such as Norwegian and Wow appears to have led to its demise.

Signs that the airline was in trouble came in August, when it said ending all short-haul flights from Birmingham airport to seven European destinations would end on 3 September.

It also blamed the late arrival of new aircraft from Airbus that forced it to cancel flights and lease planes.

“Weighting the potential losses due to future delivery delays … and bearing in mind the difficult environment that airlines are facing now due to low prices and high fuel costs, we have decided to cease operations now,” the company said.

When it began longhaul operations from Stansted in May, Primera was offering flights to New York’s Newark airport, Boston, Washington DC and Toronto starting at £149 each way.

Most of the airline’s business involved taking Scandinavian holidaymakers to destinations such as Spain, Greece, Italy, Egypt and Turkey.