Holiday-makers forced to return home after their flight from Belfast International Airport was cancelled due to aircraft safety fears are to receive a full refund.
The group of more than 150, including Co Waterford secondary school students and a Monaghan GAA team, will have the £475 to £500 cost of their package holiday to a Bulgarian ski resort refunded, according to Ms Radka Lynne of Balkan Tours.
The flight was cancelled in the early hours of Monday morning because crucial safety and legal documentation could not be produced by the crew of the chartered Armenian Airlines plane. Asked by RTE radio's Marian Finucane on RTE radio whether the passengers would be compensated, Ms Lynne replied: "Of course, completely."
The passengers were stranded in Belfast airport from 2 p.m. last Sunday until 1.30 a.m. when they heard that permission could not be granted for the aircraft to depart for Plovdir with passengers on board.
The managing director of the airport company, Mr Paul Kehoe, said a permit allowing the airline to operate in UK airspace was not found on board.
Mr Kehoe also said that after a "cursory" examination, he had reservations about safety on board the plane. About 30 people had refused to fly on the same aircraft on December 26th because of concerns about basic safety features.
Ms Lynne criticised airport management, saying they could have prevented the incident by taking action at that time.
She said that in the 25 years her company had been in operation, they had never inspected a chartered aircraft before a flight.
Balkan Tours had chartered the Tupolev TU154B aircraft from Bulgarian airline Rila Air which, due to a shortage of planes, had subcontracted to Armenian Airlines. Transport officials in Britain are investigating the incident.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions said Armenian Airlines had breached regulations and acted irresponsibly by not applying for a permit.
Mr Michael Lynne, a director of Balkan Tours, would not give interviews yesterday and said he was too busy dealing with the Ministry of Transport in Sofia.
He claimed there were inaccuracies in the portrayal of his company by some media but refused to elaborate, saying he would not give interviews unless he could see in advance what would appear in the newspaper. His wife Radka, also a director of the company, was unavailable for comment.