Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Dec 15, 2006 - 12:25 PM airtravel

Air Madrid's reaction to the Spanish Ministry of Development's decision to suspend its operating licence has been to close the shop. Although the company presented arguments in its defence to the Ministry's Civil Aviation Safety and Inspection Department yesterday and a final resolution was pending, it has chosen to shut itself down rather than be suspended by the Ministry. According to Skytrax (airlinequality.com), which gives user-based airline ratings from 1 to 5 stars, Air Madrid is a 2-star airline, on a par with Tajikistan Airlines or Air Algerie." Read more, or see the Spain and Portugal for Visitors International Airlines page.

Apparently, the airline has said that the sole blame for its situation lies with the Ministry. I say "apparently" because the shutdown has been so complete that even its websites are no longer available on the Net, and I do not have access to Air Madrid's communiqué. El País reports that the company maintains that "the Ministry of Development has managed to totally destroy Air Madrid's commercial image and place (it) in a very serious crisis... which prevents it conducting its business."

Although the Ministry of Development had originally announced that it would only guarantee flights until the company's licence was suspended, it had rectified slightly in response to public preoccupation, though without offering to "take responsibility for passengers."

*To be fair, bmibaby only gets 2 stars as well.