Passengers travelling by the Austria-based Comtel Air from Amritsar to Birmingham, most of whom were of Indian-origin, were asked to pay for fuel in the last leg of the journey at the Veinna stop.

More than 180 passengers were told to disembark because the airline had "ran out of cash to fund the last leg of the trip."

The passengers refused to get off the plane and were told that the flight would go to Birmingham only if 23,400 euros (20,000 pounds) was handed over.

The Austrian police were called to the aircraft during the six-hour stand-off, which only ended when passengers were escorted to cash point machines.

Many elderly and young passengers did not have any money, and had to borrow from others. The passengers were told that they and their luggage would be removed from the plane if they did not pay up.

More than 600 people on four different flights are thought to have been embroiled in the fiasco which started in Amritsar at the weekend.

The Birmingham-Amritsar section is a popular one due to the large population of Punjab origin living in Birmingham and other towns of the West Midlands.

Gurhej Kaur, a blind 80-year-old from Handsworth Wood, was one of the passengers who spent more than 15 hours on the plane while her medication was in the hold.

Her 34-year-old relative, Dalvinder Batra, from Oldbury, told the media in Birmingham: "It is absolutely disgusting. There are still people stuck out there. We have been told that the company has gone bust."

Tarlochan Singh, 57, from Wolverhampton, said: "Nobody has told us anything. They wanted all the money in cash. Everyone was furious, that is why we had the sit-in. We spent more than six hours in Vienna."

Satbarg Nijjar, who was collecting his wife Gurdab Kaur Nijjar at the airport, said: "They have been told that they have not paid landing fees or taxes and the company is in financial trouble."

Ranbir Dehal, from Wolverhampton, said: "We were escorted to the cash point to take out money. They said there was a deficit of nearly 20,000 pounds and they gave us receipts. They lined up the buses and said we would be removed from the plane if we didn't pay up."

A spokesman for Birmingham Airport said it was seeking details from the Austrian-based airline about the delays.

A spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said that it was not unusual for passengers to be stranded in this way when an airline is in financial difficulty, adding that passengers would usually be asked to purchase another ticket for a flight home with another carrier.

The incident comes days after another set of passengers on the same route were forced to cough up 20,000 pounds over the weekend when the airline could not afford to meet the fuel and other costs of the second leg of the journey.