Thousands of Spanair ticket holders seek refunds

AENA received 220 complaints from Valencia's Manises airport on Friday afternoon following the cancellation of flights from Spanair, which had three flights scheduled today to and from the airport over the course of today (Monday).

The airline has arranged a return flight between Valencia and Barcelona, and a one-way flights between Valencia and Madrid, however the airport has not released detailes on the number of passengers affected by the cancellation.

As of thsi morning, a total of 15,386 passengers have purchased tickets to fly on 143 flights which will now longer operate, which more than half of these being for flights to or from Barcelona's El Prat airport, where the airline was based.

Despite Spanair initially advising stranded passengers and those who had purchased tickets to 'check the website' - which was taken down from the internet just hours later - the airlines is now advising those who made purchases with a credit or debit card to speak to their banks to arrange a refund.

The collapse of the airline is expected to result in the loss of arond 4'000 direct and indirect jobs.