Charter carrier Ajet, owned by the Libra Holidays Group, ceased flying on Wednesday, a day after announcing it would complete its winter schedule but wind down over three months.
Up to 150 delegates at the Hays Travel conference in Cyprus were among 189 passengers stranded by the closure. They were rebooked on a Eurocypria Airlines flight due to depart the same evening and Libra Holidays UK promised to make similar arrangements for other passengers.
Libra was unable to say how many clients were affected. In a statement on Tuesday it had predicted no impact on holidays “in the unlikely event that any flight rearrangements are necessary”.
That statement followed an announcement to the Cyprus stock exchange by Ajet Aviation that appeared to take the UK company by surprise.
Ajet only launched in May, taking over the schedule of Helios Airways which Libra had bought in 2004. Helios had suffered problems since the crash of a flight from Larnaca in August 2005 in which 121 died. A Greek air accident investigator’s report last month blamed human error.
The carrier flew to several European destinations, but only to Cyprus from the UK.
* More details from Libra on 0871 226 7838