Ryanair leaves passengers stranded in Alghero

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Trip Start Jun 13, 2007 Previous
Entry Trip End Sep 23, 2007

  Alghero, Italy
Sunday, November 13, 2011

While Ryanair was offering one of its planes to airlift XL Leisure holidaymakers home to the UK, it was leaving hundreds of its own passengers stranded at the airport in Alghero, Sardinia, overnight Friday after a violent storm made the airport inoperable.

The town, including the airport, was hit by wind gusts of 140km an hour and torrential rain late Friday afternoon, felling trees, scattering chairs, tables and market umbrellas along the seafront and blowing a 32m yacht up on the beach.

The same day, Ryanair offered authorities in the UK and Ireland the use of one of its aircraft for the next two weeks to bring back home 85,000 people on holiday after XL was put into administration.

But when Ryanair passengers for the 9:05pm flight to London's Stansted airport arrived at the airport Friday night after checking the website showing the flight was leaving on time, they found the check-in area cordoned off and the flight listed as delayed

Violent storm...felling trees

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Ben Hodgkiss from Minehead, Somerset said that, while passengers were lined up outside the Ryanair office at the airport, the screens changed, showing the flight was cancelled.

"We were told they could only waitlist us for the FR231 flight the following morning because it was full and then they just locked the office and walked away," he said.

Pauline Trailion of Stratford-upon-Avon, said: 'At 3am this morning they just abandoned us! with no water, nothing to eat and only these hard metal seats to sit on.'

The following morning the Ryanair website still showed no change in flight schedules but passengers who arrived at the airport at 8:30am for the Ryanair 231 flight for London's Stansted airport were turned away at the check-in and told the airport was closed.

The airport was filling up fast and confusion reigned as five flights, including local One Air Italian flights and a Lufthansa flight for Frankfurt were indefinitely delayed and no announcements were made - even an Italian Civil Aviation official had no answers and just walked away when questioned

Ryanair...stranded passengers

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However, as rumours circulated the airport's computer systems and electricals were out of action, the tarmac strewn with debris and no-one would be able to get out that day, passengers were looking for alternatives. Some passenger in the Ryanair queue were booking flights on their mobiles on Easyjet from Olbia, and getting together to share the cab fare for the 134km ride to the west coast of Sardinia.

As passengers filed into the Ryanair office, they were told there was a possibility the 10:15am flight would leave in the afternoon, otherwise all they could do was to waitlist them for the next flight which was not until Wednesday.
Asked if Ryanair would put on extra flights to bring its passengers home, or whether it was a signatory to the IATA passenger charter which promises stranded passengers the first alternative flight out or hotel accommodation in a worse case scenario, one of the Ryanair staff members shook his head.

A number of Ryanair passengers were by now visibly distressed - particularly those who had been queuing up outside the Ryanair office since the evening before - amid a surreal festive atmosphere as a stranded Sardinian dance troupe heading for the Italian mainland started performing to the tune of an accordion.

Shortly before midday, the airport maintenance staff filed into the airport building having cleared the tarmac of debris and shortly afterwards planes was starting to land. The first flight out was a Ryanair fight to Liverpool, its passengers only a few hours delayed and by now, enough passengers had found alternative routes home, leaving enough seats for Friday's stranded passengers.

However, before the Ryanair 231 flight took off, Thomson flights heading for Norwich, Southampton and Birmingham left with less delay. While Thomson officials were loudly announcing their flight takeoffs and rounding up passengers, the only information Ryanair customers had to go by was the departure screens which showed the Stansted flight leaving at 4:10pm and an airport announcement that passengers would be able to check in for the flight at 2pm, information which turned out to be hopelessly erroneous.

The check-in for the Ryanair flight 231 was not until 3:30pm and the flight did not take off until 5:30pm - more than seven hours delayed, leaving passengers grumbling over the lack of information and assistance, swearing it was the last time they would fly Ryanair.

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