Thousands of passengers have been stranded at airports all over the world following a decision by Swissair to suspend all flights indefinitely.
It is the first time a major airline has been forced to cease operations because of the slump in air travel since the atrocities in the US -although analysts believe it may not be the last.
The once-proud company admitted it could no longer afford to continue flying its 77 planes as oil companies demanded payment "upfront" for fuel.
Officials at Heathrow impounded two Swissair planes with passengers on board after a row over landing fees.
Concern also mounted over the future of Sabena, Belgium's national airline, which is part-owned by Swissair.
Patrick Jeandrain, spokesman for Swissair, said there was nothing the carrier could do for passengers left at airports.
"We cannot reimburse tickets or offer alternative flights. We are aware it is a disaster for our clients but at the moment there is nothing we can do because we have no money.
"We don't know whether we will be able to resume flights in the future but for the time being we cannot transport anybody. Everybody will have to make their own arrangements and we will not be able to do that for them. We obviously have many people waiting but all our planes are grounded."
At Zurich airport, the airline's home base, a message over the loudspeakers told hundreds of stranded passengers they would not be compensated for their worthless tickets and advised them to buy new tickets elsewhere.
It was expected there would be more job losses at the carrier on top of the 2,650 redundancies announced on Monday. Unions believe a total of 10,000 staff might have to go.
Services were suspended after Swissair filed for protection from creditors. The company will now rely on banks to provide funds to enable it to resume operations.
