Primera Air passengers and crew say they're sleeping in airports after the carrier collapsed and left them stranded

Eric Jetner/Twitter

A still from a video of Primera passengers in Paris being told their flight has been cancelled.

• Low-cost carrier Primera Air declared bankruptcy and shut down all operations on Monday.
• Multiple passengers and crew members are stuck in foreign countries.
• Some say Primera Air didn't tell them about the collapse, and did nothing to arrange their accommodation or flights home.
• People have said say they spent the night sleeping at the airport because they have nowhere to go.

Passengers and crew are stuck in foreign countries after low-cost carrier Primera Air ceased operations on Monday, and some are being forced to sleep at the airport.

The Danish company declared bankruptcy and shut down all its operations in a statement posted online on Monday night. All flight bookings with the airline are now essentially worthless.

Two flights due to take off from London Stansted Airport to Washington, DC, and New York were grounded, and at least one aircraft has been impounded, The Times of London reported. London Stansted has advised passengers due to travel with Primera Air not to show up at the airport.

Passengers and crew members who already traveled with the airline to different countries are now stranded, and must make their own way home.

InsectWorld / Shutterstock

A stock photo of a Primera Air plane.

Horror stories

Pavithra Selvakumar, a Masters student in Norwich, was due to fly home on Primera Air's Washington, DC, to London route on Monday night, she told Business Insider.

She had no idea her flight was canceled until she arrived at Washington Dulles Airport to check in. 

"I received no notification about that," Selvakumar told BI.

All she saw were two signs on the check-in counter: One saying that the airline had ceased operations and canceled all flights, and the other containing a letter from the airline's board lamenting "a sad day for all the employees and passengers of Primera Air."

Courtesy of Pavithra Selvakumar

Two signs notifying passengers of Primera Air's collapse at the check-in desk at Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday night.

"There's no customer support here. Literally no one. I tried calling them, [but] there's no one answering the phone calls," Selvakumar said.

She tried to book her flight home with other airlines, but all the ones she approached asked her to pay for a flight in full, which cost thousands of dollars.

"People [on the scheduled flight] who have money booked flights and left on the next flights," she said. "But people like me who are students - it's extremely hard for me."

"This is a special situation. Airlines should be compassionate to passengers," she said.

She added that she spent Monday night sleeping at Primera Air's arrival counter.

Courtesy of Pavithra Selvakumar

Signs at Primera Air's check-in counter at Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, on Monday evening.

Eric Jetner, another passenger due to fly from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to New York, posted a video of dozens of passengers waiting in the airport as authorities announced the Primera Air cancellation.

A woman who appears to be a cabin crew member with Primera Air also tweeted that the airline left staff "stranded" and "sleeping rough" in locations including Toronto and New York.

The woman, tweeting from the account @cocoflvr, said: "I don't think any help packages have been arranged for passengers or crew. The crewing office nor any company phone numbers are answering so we're basically stuck here."

She also claimed that she wasn't paid for September, and suggested that she was unlikely to get any more.

A representative for the airline told Business Insider on Monday that they could not immediately confirm plans for passengers left stranded by the airline because "all the employees of Primera Air are let go."

The airline, which had 15 planes in its fleet, started offering round-trip flights from London to cities in North America - including New York, Washington, DC, Boston, and Toronto - earlier this year. Tickets cost as little as £99 in the UK or $99 in the US.

Primera Air

Primera Air's premium cabin.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority said passengers who have traveled with Primera Air would have to make their own arrangements to get home.

It added that it was not providing refunds for unused tickets, but passengers can file a claim with their card providers or travel insurers.

Primera Air's press office was no longer available for comment. A public relations officer who previously worked with the airline was also unable to answer Business Insider's request for comment.