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Hundreds of holiday fliers were stranded for up to a week in New York by a Scotland-based budget airline.

Shuttled between JFK airport and local hotels for days, exhausted and angry customers who bought tickets on Flyglobespan to Liverpool, England, and Ireland West Airport Knock either canceled their vacations or made frantic attempts to book on other airlines, said Desmond O’Carroll, a New York lawyer who was among them.

Some desperate Irish citizens even telephoned their prime minister, who called them back, but Irish consulate staff said they had been unable to contact Flyglobespan.

“It was one of those unbelievable, surreal experiences that you can’t believe is happening,” said Kirsten Babic of Glen Ellen, Calif., who returned home with her two daughters late Thursday after catching a Delta flight back to San Francisco from New York.

Stephen Elmy, Flyglobespan’s Toronto-based general manager for North America, confirmed Thursday that Flyglobespan had canceled its JFK flights to the Ireland and Liverpool airports from June 28 through Tuesday, finally departing Wednesday night.

Initially, Elmy said, lightning struck one of the airline’s Boeing B757-200 jets, causing electrical problems that were discovered when it arrived in New York. Repairs took days.

In the meantime, he said, the airline couldn’t replace the jet because a security alert had grounded half its 21-jet fleet. The alert, which closed airports in Glasgow, Scotland, and Liverpool, for a period, was declared Saturday after two men in a flaming sport utility vehicle crashed into Glasgow’s main terminal.

Elmy and O’Carroll gave different accounts of how Flyglobespan treated passengers on canceled flights, although they both said they were put up in hotels and offered meals. O’Carroll said the passengers often went hungry because they were being shuttled or because food outlets didn’t honor the airline’s vouchers.)

O’Carroll and Babic, echoing reports in the Irish media, said customers were unable to reach Flyglobespan throughout their ordeal and were misinformed by gate staff, who were subcontracted by the airline. These employees told them at least eight times between Thursday and Sunday that planes would be taking off, mustering passengers to board nonexistent flights, O’Carroll said.

Flyglobespan refused passengers’ demands to rebook them on other airlines, insisting that its own flights would arrive soon, O’Carroll and Babic said. Many finally made their own arrangements.

O’Carroll said he was among about 30 passengers who got on a Delta flight to Shannon, Ireland, on Sunday night, paying just under $400. Passengers who rebooked on other airlines, he said, reported paying one-way fares up to $1,400.

While waiting for his Delta flight, O’Carroll said, he visited the Flyglobespan gate, where he found a "surreal" scene of hundreds of people lined up without staff to check them in.

But Elmy said that customers were regularly informed of developments and that "they were all looked after," although he acknowledged communications problems.

"We’re an Internet-based airline," he said. "We don’t have 24-hour reservations staff." At one point, he said, gate agents gave stranded fliers the wrong phone number for Flyglobespan.

Contradicting O’Carroll, Elmy said, "We did arrange flights for a number of people with various airlines," including Air India and Zoom, a low-cost Canadian carrier.

He said displaced customers could request refunds of their Flyglobespan fares, but "we’re not going to be refunding what they paid other airlines, because they were offered a seat on the first flight we operated and were put up in hotels."

On its website Thursday, the airline said, "The company recognizes the severe inconvenience caused and would like to apologize for these extraordinary circumstances which were entirely outside the control of the airline."

The legal rights of the affected fliers were not clear.

Although U.S. law generally doesn’t require airlines to compensate displaced passengers, unless they are bumped by overbooking, the Flyglobespan flights should fall under European Union law, which is “more friendly to passenger rights,” said Al Anolik, a San Francisco travel attorney. Even so, he said, lightning and security alerts may qualify as emergencies that are excluded under EU compensation rules.

It would be another matter if the airline deliberately misinformed customers, Anolik added.

“If you’re using the ‘creeping flight board’ routine, saying flights willl leave soon, and you know you have no plane,” fraud could be involved, he said.

Nick Reddy, assistant private secretary to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in Dublin, said today that Ahern spoke with O’Carroll by phone on Saturday and asked Reddy to investigate. Reddy said he then asked the Irish consulate in New York to follow up.

Niall Burgess, Irish consul general in New York, said he dispatched a staff member Sunday to JFK. Burgess said the staffer was unable to find employees at Flyglobespan’s gate. He said he also asked the Irish consulate in Edinburgh to contact the company, but as of Thursday, he was still awaiting a response.

Babic, the California passenger, said she and her two daughters had booked a June 28-to-July 10 round trip on Flyglobespan from JFK to Ireland West Airport Knock as part of a 12-day package. After days of waiting in New York, the family gave up on making the trip and booked the Delta flight back to San Francisco. Babic said she is seeking refunds totaling more than $4,000 on the package.

“I will never fly an airline I’ve never heard of,” Babic said.

Flyglobespan, which was launched in 2002 and flies to 40 destinations, began U.S. service in late 2005, in Florida. In May it added New York and Boston as U.S. gateways. Its jets to Liverpool are emblazoned with a self-portrait of late Beatle John Lennon.