A Ryanair passenger endured a nightmare journey when their Bristol to Dublin flight was forced to divert to Manchester during Storm Amy last October.
The aircraft made two unsuccessful attempts to touch down at Dublin airport before being rerouted due to severe weather conditions.
Upon landing in Manchester, the passengers remained confined aboard the plane for six hours.
Throughout this extended wait, the airline failed to provide any complimentary refreshments to stranded passengers.
The ordeal finally concluded close to midnight when passengers were removed from the aircraft, having spent hours without the basic provisions airlines are legally required to offer during delays exceeding two hours.
When passengers finally disembarked, they discovered the terminal was empty and no airline representatives had accompanied them off the aircraft.
Despite assurances that Ryanair staff would arrange taxis and accommodation, the crew failed to leave the plane with travellers.
One of these unfortunate passengers, from Bishop’s Tawton in Devon, was left with no choice but to secure their own taxi to a nearby hotel for the night, reports the Guardian.
Once landing in Manchester Airport, passengers were stuck on board the Ryanair flight for six hours
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With no communication from the carrier and no available flights showing the following day, they were forced to make their way back to Bristol via two separate bus journeys.
The entire failed trip ultimately cost the traveller £900.
When the passenger submitted a £240 claim for hotel and transport expenses, Ryanair rejected it outright.
The airline’s records apparently showed the flight as having landed in Dublin, despite the diversion to Manchester.
Ryanair claimed the passenger had travelled on a flight at the same time as them being stuck on the tarmac on another plane
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After a fortnight of being directed to an online portal that did not recognise the flight as cancelled or delayed, the passenger received an extraordinary response.
Ryanair claimed they had been rebooked onto a Dublin service that supposedly departed whilst they remained trapped inside the grounded aircraft.
The airline insisted the passenger forfeited their entitlement to expenses by failing to board this non-existent replacement flight.
Requests for evidence of this phantom booking or passenger numbers went unanswered.
The airline only changed its position after press enquiries were made on the passenger’s behalf.
Ryanair subsequently acknowledged the traveller had been “incorrectly advised” and agreed to refund the flight cost whilst offering to reimburse hotel and transport expenses.
Regarding the absence of complimentary refreshments during the six-hour wait, the carrier initially claimed the bar had been open for passengers.
However, Ryanair later conceded this was a paid service rather than the free provisions airlines must offer when delays exceed two hours.
The company suggested affected passengers could reclaim costs through its online portal – the same system that had already failed to recognise the disrupted flight.
This Ryanair case comes after the airline reportedly left nearly 90 passengers behind at Lanzarote Airport following lengthy delays.
The service from one of the Canary Islands to Bristol is said to have departed half empty after around 89 travellers were held up in passport control in the non-Schengen area.
Reports suggested the delays led airline staff to proceed without them, with the passengers’ luggage removed from the aircraft before departure – a process that took close to an hour.
