Air Madrid Shuts Down Worldwide Operations
Privately owned carrier Air Madrid suspended all its flights on Friday, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded over Christmas and blaming its action on a development ministry threat to suspend its license.

The budget carrier, which has nine aircraft and flies mainly between Spain and Latin America, said ticket sales had fallen dramatically since the development ministry statement on Tuesday and suppliers had refused it credit.

Some 120.000 passengers worldwide are affected.

In Costa Rica, ICR attempted to obtain information from the Air Madrid offices, but were simply told that the offices and the airline are not shut down, just that the flights cancelled.

Asked when they will resume and how many people affected in Costa Rica, the person on the other end of the telephone was short with her answers, saying only that the airline would provide reimbursement for the unused portion of any ticket.

The employee told us that if the tickets were purchased directly from Air Madrid in Costa Rica, an immediate refund would be issued. However, for tickets bought through a travel agent, payment could be up to two weeks and only by cheque.

Unfortunately, travellers who purchased their ticket in Spain will have to get home to get the refund she said however, the Air Madrid employee said that they company would help those passengers book on other airlines.

The announcement yesterday came as a surprise to many, however, it was seen coming as many Air Madrid flights began to experience long delays, up to 30 hours in some cases.

Air Madrid is one of two carriers to offer flights between San José and Spain.

Air Madrid was offering flights as low as us$599 (plus taxes, airport fees, etc) between San José and Spain and flew to 8 eight other Latin American countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Panama, Brazil, Mexico and Peru.

The telephone number to contact  Air Madrid in Costa Rica is (506) 296-4559.