REACTION

CATHERINE FEGAN and WILLIAM TINNING

There was misery on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday as hundreds of passengers were left stranded in the wake of the Zoom Airlines fall-out.

In Glasgow, 205 passengers bound for Canada were left bewildered when the Boeing that was due to leave at 10.55am was detained on the runway by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority. Another Zoom flight, with 156 passengers, which should have left for Vancouver at 12.40pm yesterday was also cancelled.

James McGrory, 62, and his wife Anne, 52, had driven from their home in St Andrews to get the flight and said when they arrived at the airport it was pandemonium with queues "a mile long".

"There was a stampede to the desk when someone came out to tell us what was going on," he said. "Then we were told there was a technical problem with the plane and it wouldn't be departing. Then another man came out and said Zoom hadn't paid a bill and had gone into receivership."

The Zoom Airlines ticket booth was closed last night. A pile of double-sided A4 leaflets, advising customers that the airline had ceased operations and detailing services offered by other airlines which may help them complete their journey to Canada, was left on the unmanned counter.

A 15-year-old Canadian girl, who had been in Scotland to visit her grandparents in Inverness, was among those caught up in the turmoil.

Yvonne McCuaig, a promotions executive at the airport said: "The girl was in tears when she came up to me and said I am an unaccompanied minor. I have no money. I have just been dumped here by an airline called Zoom. Can you help me?'"

Ms McCuaig said: "I put her in touch with the police at the airport." Last night Strathclyde Police confirmed that the girl was on her way back to Inverness.

Queues formed a few yards away at the Barrhead Travel outlet, just round the corner in the terminal building, which extended its opening hours past 6pm to accommodate about 40 of its customers who had booked with Zoom and others left stranded who wanted to try to book alternative flights.

Other passengers tried frantically to make their own arrangements. Among them were seven members of the Niven family from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who had been on holiday in Scotland and visiting relatives in Newcastle over the past three weeks.

Laird Niven, 48, said: "We have found this experience with Zoom unbelievable. We stood about the airport all day and had little information from anyone. Police were on hand any time someone made an announcement. We were in shock when we learned the company had ceased trading. Many passengers, some with babies, were in tears.

"My wife is on the phone right now to our travel agent in Halifax trying to book alternative flights back home. They are going to cost us £900 each but our insurance should cover most of the costs"

Mr Niven added: "We are OK because we have the means to get home. I feel sorry for those who don't."

Meanwhile, in Canada, 69 passengers expecting to fly to Glasgow and then on to London's Gatwick Airport on Wednesday were told the aircraft was "no longer available".

One passenger, who would only give her name as Margaret, was expecting to fly to Glasgow with her elderly sister, but they were left at the airport waiting for information when no-one would check them in.

Margaret approached a clerk and was told the plane was having some "technical difficulties". The group was later told no aircraft would be leaving on Wednesday night and Margaret began to hear rumblings that the company had gone into receivership.

"It was a mob scene at the ticket counter," she said. "Everybody was crowding around trying to get information."

Margaret's sister was to be returning home and both women had plans to attend a niece's wedding in Glasgow tomorrow.

She said: "We're not going to make it to the wedding."

ANALYSIS:

Zoom could be the first of many airlines to go

DAVID LEASK
Booking a flight used to be so easy: you just surfed the net until you found the cheapest low-cost carrier to take you where you want to go. Not any more. Now you need to work out the odds of your carrier going bust.

A whole squadron of international airlines yesterday revealed profit warnings or losses. One, Scottish-owned but Canadian-registered Zoom, suspended all operations and cancelled all flights as it sought protection from its creditors.

Industry experts believe many carriers will fail to see out the winter. "Things are not happy in airline land," said one aviation insider.

The reason for the crisis: soaring fuel prices and the lingering hangover of last year's credit crunch.

Airlines moaned last year when oil hit $70 (£38) and newspaper headlines warned of the end of low-cost "binge" flying.

Now crude is hovering at $120 (£66), down from its peak, but still high enough to make finance executives smart. Clever, bigger airlines hedged their fuel purchases.

Smaller outfits, some of which have been known to settle their bills with credit cards issued to their pilots, are struggling. They, warn industry people privately, might just be the airlines to avoid.

The big players - the BAs, the Air Frances and the Lufthansas of the world - have enough cash and enough know-how to fly through this crisis, although not without a turbulence.

"They will be dented and bruised," said David Kaminsky-Morrow, of Flight International, the London-based industry bible. "But not fatally."

The trick, for anyone planning a trip this winter or next summer, is to check out a lot more than an airline's flashy looking website.

The questions to ask: How big is a carrier's fleet? How much money does it make? The lower the answer to those two questions, the bigger the risk in booking.

Really canny fliers are also checking out the competition: small airlines up against big rivals on key routes are said to be struggling.

"Just a short time ago everybody and his brother was trying to start a low-cost airline," explained Mr Kaminsky-Morrow. "But the opportunities for that are becoming fewer and fewer."

Big, established carriers, Ryanair and easyJet in this country, are also expected to survive.

Many in the aviation industry, however, are now making sweepstakes on how their smaller rivals will do this winter.

Even the big airlines are cutting back. Ryanair this week axed flights between Prestwick and Cork.

Zoom, however, is the first significant casualty to affect many Scots.

The firm, owned by Lanarkshire travel entrepreneurs Hugh and John Boyle with a bit of help from the Bank of Scotland, may not be the last victim of the downturn.

Other small airlines have already collapsed, including Aloha of Hawaii and European business-class only operator Silverjet. Others are teetering. Authorities are currently trying to prop up key carriers in several countries.

Profile:

Brothers whose flights of imagination are big business

Catherine Fegan
Zoom Airlines operated a scheduled service between Canada and the United Kingdom, France and Italy as well as charter flights from Canada to the Caribbean and southern United States.

The budget airline was launched in May 2002 by Scottish entrepreneur Hugh Boyle as the latest venture in a long line of investments by him and his brother John. To celebrate the launch of the airline, the brothers flew a holiday jet over their hometown of Hamilton.

Although best known for the £81m sale of Direct Holidays, Hugh Boyle's career in the travel industry stretches back more than two decades prior to the famous deal that turned the brothers into multi-millionaires.

The two set up their first company, Falcon Holidays, in 1976. This was sold in 1982 for £2.2m to Owners Abroad, after which Hugh set up Tjaereborg, his second travel venture. Tjaereborg was merged with Martin Brooks to form Eclipse Holidays in 1990.

From there, the Boyle brothers went on, in 1991, to set up Direct Holidays, the Glasgow-based company that became one of the first to specialise in marketing holiday packages direct to the public.

Hugh Boyle, who had a 25% stake in the business, stepped down as managing director in 1998 to move with his family to Canada, where relatives of his wife Christine live. He vacated the post just five months before the sale of Direct Holidays to Airtours, but was still on the board at the time of the deal.

After moving to Ottawa, Hugh Boyle set up Canada's first direct-sell tour operator, Go Travel Direct, in 2003.

In April this year, John Boyle, who bought Motherwell FC in 1997, chartered one of his own