Air Comet passengers, due to fly out from Madrid bound for Lima, blockaded access to Barajas airport to protest against the grounding of the no-frills airline.

Travellers were kept waiting for 14-hours at check-in desks and left in the dark as to why.

The budget carrier that files between Spain and Latin America has been ordered to cease operations after a British judge called for its fleet to be impounded. The airline has begun bankruptcy proceedings.

It owes 17 million euros in lease payments to the German-based Nord Bank, which filed for the carrier to stop trading. The company has asked the government for permission to axe 700 jobs, its total workforce.

Copyright © 2012 euronews