Primera Air: Essential advice for travellers after low-cost carrier goes bust

Tens of thousands of passengers will be out of pocket

The budget airline Primera Air has gone bust, blaming late deliveries of Airbus A321 and a range of operational problems.

It told passengers: “On behalf of Primera Air team, we would like to thank you for your loyalty. On this sad day we are saying Goodbye to all of you.”

The collapse leaves an estimated 2,500-5,000 passengers stranded on the wrong side of the Atlantic, and tens of thousands more seriously out of pocket.

These are the key questions and answers.

I am stranded abroad as a result of the failure. What are my rights?

The airline says: “Please visit primeraair.com for further updates in next few days.” But I would not hang around.

If you were one of the small minority of passengers who booked flights as part of a package holiday, put together by a separate travel company along with accommodation, then that firm needs to provide you with an alternative flight. But the vast majority of Primera Air’s passengers appear to have bought flights direct from the airline, with a few others booking through an agent.

The best plan is to see what other carriers are offering to Primera Air passengers. Typically when airlines go bust, others step in with repatriation fares set at around the marginal cost of carrying a passenger, perhaps £150. They do not seek to make money out of the awful situation.

United Airlines has special fares for Primera Air customers from New York/Newark and Washington/Dulles to Heathrow until the end of October. Affected Primera Air customers can call United reservations on +1-800-864-8331.

“Customers will have to provide their original Primera Air booking reference and flight number along with departure date, points of origin and destination,” says the airline.

Virgin Atlantic is offering deals to Primera Air’s customers – and stranded staff – in London, New York, Washington DC, Boston, and Toronto, typically for £140 one way. “A selection of reduced fares are now available,” says the airline. It is advising passengers to call 0344 8747747 in the UK or +1 800 862 8621 in the US.

Norwegian has halved the pre-tax cost of transatlantic flights to Primera passengers. All taxes, fees and charges must be paid at the usual rate. Nevertheless some New York-Gatwick departures are available for under £100 one-way, by calling the airline on + 47 210 16771.

British Airways is also offering a range of discounted repatriation fares for Primera Air customers who are part way through their journey and want to fly back to London. The fares can only be booked via a British Airways call centre, for travel up to 16 October.

American has told The Independent it will not be offering such fares.

Ryanair is offering “rescue fares” at around £25-£35 for Primera Air passengers with advance bookings to and from European destinations up to March 2019. They must be booked at Ryanair.com by midnight on Thursday 4 October. And easyJet is also offering deals on the routes that it shared with Primera Air.

You will need to provide proof of your booking and hope to claim the cash back later from your card company or, possibly, an insurer – especially if you booked through an agent that provided Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance.

Who will pay for my hotel expenses while I wait for another flight?

You, or possibly your travel insurer.

I have a future booking with Primera Air. Will I be given a flight on a different airline – and if not, what happens to my money?

The airline is in administration, and is not going to book alternative flights for anyone.

The Civil Aviation Authority says: “Passengers wishing to obtain a refund for unused tickets will need to contact the company directly.” But passengers who booked direct are now unsecured creditors of Primera Air. As it owes many millions of pounds to secured creditors, there is almost no possibility that you will get anything back from the company.

Passengers should be able to get recompense from the provider of the credit or Visa debit card with which they paid.

Assuming I get a refund, will I also be able to claim for a more expensive replacement flight?

You can try to argue that your card provider should pay for what you booked, ie a transatlantic flight, but experience suggests that is unlikely to be successful

I have an outstanding claim against Primera Air for EC261 compensation. Will it be paid?

If you can prove the claim has been agreed but not paid, then you are an unsecured creditor. File a claim to the administrators by email to primera@dlapiper.com. In the unlikely event that funds are available, you would be in line for a share.

When my Primera Air flight was cancelled from the US to Stansted, I was told to buy a flight and that the airline would compensate me. What are my rights?

If you were told in writing by Primera Air to book with another airline, you are in a similar legal position to claimants of compensation – you can theoretically hope to share in the proceeds of liquidation. But if you were simply advised to do so by ground staff, that will not constitute proof.

Travel insurance is the most hopeful option, but I have never seen a policy that says: “We will cover the cost of alternative flights if your airline fails before it has refunded you.”

How many passengers are affected?
On UK-North America routes, probably a total of 2,500-5,000 people are actually stranded, ie they flew out to North America or out to Britain and can’t get back.

In terms of forward bookings on UK-North America routes, I reckon the airline was 1,000 passengers per day on its current Stansted schedule, which will dwindle in the near future. So estimating 20,000 for October, 10,000 for November and 20,000 for December/New Year and a relatively small number thereafter, adds up to about 60,000 are affected – but of those, half will be North Americans rather than Brits.

There are also some passengers who are booked between the UK and Mediterranean airports, but they should have little trouble finding alternative flights at low prices.

Who was Primera Air?

An Icelandic-Latvian-Danish airline that began in 2004 and was doing all right until it launched an extremely ambitious programme of flights from the UK.

Was it widely known the airline was in trouble?

It was difficult to reconcile the immense costs Primera Air was incurring, for example for chartering replacement aircraft and paying out compensation claims, with the very low fares it was charging. But conversely all new routes take time to pay off, and for all anyone knew the airline had deep pockets.

Is it a coincidence that Primera Air went bust at the same time of year as Monarch?

No. It may seem absurd that airlines in such terrible financial trouble can keep flying for so long. But airlines are generally “cash positive” through the summer, with money coming in from passengers. Once bookings – and fares – start to decline, however, airlines in trouble find it difficult to pay the essential bills – wages, fuel, aircraft leases and airport charges.

In its final weeks, Primera Air was announcing a preposterous number of new routes for 2019, such as Brussels, Frankfurt, Madrid and Berlin to New York, Boston, Washington, Toronto and Montreal, apparently in a bid to get cash coming in. It failed, and the people who booked the “new routes” must now try to recoup their losses.

Who will go bust next?

There are constant rumours in aviation about the apparently shaky state of airlines, many of which are groundless. I am certainly not going to repeat any rumours; if they are widely circulated they can turn into self-fulfilling prophecies.