A standby budget ticket special offered by a Mexican airline to their airline staff and relatives has left almost 200 Mexican passengers stranded at theAdolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport. They have ended up sleeping rough in the airport and are quickly running out of money, as no flights are available to take them home. After the cheap deal went wrong, residents in Madrid are organizing public support for the victims.
Just under200 stranded at Madrid airport by Mexican airline offer
According to a report by the Local,In total 183 passengers are stranded at Madrid airport as they wait for seats to come available to fly home.
While the AeroMexico airline deal was cheap, it was on a standby basis only. Madrid is busy at the best of times, but July and August are the peak summer holiday season with tens of thousands visiting the city. The Mexican airline did warn staff not to take advantage of the special ticket offer during the peak holiday season when flights are overfull, but these passengers decided to go ahead anyway. Now there are no seats available to take them home.
Having spent several days waiting for the chance to fly back to Mexico, most of the travellers have run out of money and are forced to sleep rough in the airport. Reportedly they can’t even afford the rather inflated price of €6 for an airport sandwich.Several passengers contacted the Mexican Embassy in Madrid in an appeal for help, saying that many of them no longer had money to survive in the airport.
Officials from the embassyhave responded to say they are in touch with the airline and are "working on the problem."
Dozens stranded at Madrid airport in Mexican airline budget ticket con https://t.co/qUdpHfbyis #AeroMexico pic.twitter.com/cRgRpwzYbd
— The Local Spain (@TheLocalSpain) August 8, 2016
Madrid residents to the rescue of the Mexican airline victims
In the meantime, Madrid residents have shown their big heart and generous natures by starting up a Facebook group under the name of Mexicanas en Madrid, where they are appealing to the public for help.
As the group includes elderly passengers and families with young children, the group is asking for fruit, water, sandwiches or anything that can help them in their time of need. They also asked if anyone could offer their home to some of the travellers so they could get a littlerest. Reportedly dozens of people have responded with food and drink donations and others have offered accommodation in their homes.
It has now reachedthe stage where organizers say they have had such a good response from the Facebook appeal, they are asking people not to bring any more food to the airport. Howeverthey do still needmore assistance with accommodation for people to rest a while until thewearytravellers can finally head home to Mexico.
