Less than a week after an airline won a major best airline award two of their pilots were arrested on suspicion of being drunk at the controls as they prepared to take off with 250 passengers on board.

Canadian airline Air Transat, which flies from Scotland to destinations in Canada have confirmed the arrests of Imran Zafar Syed, 37, and Jean Franco Perrault, 39, as they were about to take off from Glasgow Airport at 1.00pm on Monday July 18 and fly to Toronto. Following the arrests, which were thought to follow concerns of other Air Transat staff over “alcoholic impairment” the 250 passengers were led off the plane and put up in Glasgow hotels until they could join a replacement flight the following day. The two, who are represented by their union, have been refused bail and have been charged with breaching Section 93 of the Railway and Transport Safety Act 2003.

A few days prior to the arrests Air Transat was voted North America’s best leisure airline in the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards, and this for the fifth consecutive year. In the company press release president and general manager Jean-Francois Lemay commented: “Air Transat particularly stands out for its specially tailored passenger experience” and that this included “our attentive crew”.