Woman arrives at airport with ticket for flight that 'doesn't exist'

Ghost plane: There was no gate number, no desk for the airline - no sign that the carrier had ever existed. Photo / Getty

Flight staff were baffled.

But that goes nowhere near describing how the passenger felt, as the only person to turn up at the airport with a ticket for a flight that "didn't exist."

Erin Levi was travelling from New Jersey to Paris for a friend's wedding. She had checked in online without a hitch, made excellent time to Newark airport and was packed and ready for the perfect trip to Europe.

However, on arrival, there was no gate number, no desk for the airline – no sign that the carrier Level Airlines had ever existed, beyond the ticket in her hand.

Eerie as.

Level Airlines, which is a brand new low-cost carrier, had cancelled the flight due to "operational reasons" without any notification to passengers, reported ABC News.

The fledgling airline, Level, which had planned to begin the Newark to Paris route on September 4th last year, had to delay the service due to teething issues.

Although the airline's communications and marketing manager said that passengers booked on to flights had been emailed to inform them of cancellations, customers claimed they either never received the notice or found it buried in their Junk folders.

On the day of Levi's flight, the website had still not yet been updated.

Fortunately there is a happy ending to this airport horror story, but only after Levi found a last minute seat on Wow Air while at the airport.

She made it to the wedding in France, but ended up spending twice the original fare on a replacement flight.

Airport staff for OpenSkies, run by British Airways, tried to help Levi - as the company that should have been operating the original flight, booked through Level Airlines.

However, Levi gave up trying the customer phone line after receiving no reply.

Level airline told ABC that customers booked onto cancelled flights would be issued a full refund. But there was no announcement as to whether passengers like Levi would be compensated for flights on last-minute alternatives.