More than 250 soccer fans who traveled to the World Cup in Brazil on a package deal turned up for their flight at Recife Airport on Wednesday to discover that the tour operator had a failed to book their charter plane home.
The stranded passengers, the majority of them from Jalisco, had paid between 13,000 and 16,000 dollars to Escotours for a package that included flights, hotels and tickets to all three of Mexico’s group games.
After Mexico’s final group game in the northern Brazilian city of Recife, the fans were expecting to board a flight back to Guadalajara, where they expected to follow the team’s progress in the tournament.
The fans, including several children, have been assisted by Mexican consular officials as the tour operator tries to unravel what has gone wrong. If the operator fails to provide a plane to bring the fans home, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry will have to foot the bill but will expect to be reimbursed.