A furious son claims airport staff caused his elderly mum to miss her flight because they "failed to help her on board".
Sheila Cottrill said she waited at the departure gate but missed her plane due to a shortage of 'Ambulift' drivers.
Her son Jeremy said his mum arrived at Birmingham Airport three-hours before her Ryanair flight to Barcelona to visit him to ensure that the journey went as smooth as possible.
He added the disaster journey has put his 87-year-old mum off travelling to see him again, BirminghamLive reports.
The pair had been separated due to the pandemic but she had planned to make the journey on May 1.
The wheelchair user, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was taken through security by assisted passage staff, left close to her gate and told someone would return to help her board the plane.
Instead, she waited alone and had to watch the flight leave, later being told there was a shortage of “Ambulift” drivers to help.
Her son Jeremy told BirminghamLive: "It's not the way to treat an elderly disabled passenger who was travelling on her own on her first holiday post-Covid situation.
"Prior to all of this she said she had lost her confidence in travelling.
"Now I fear this will be the last time she’ll consider doing so.
"Help is supposed to be there for disabled people. There was a total lack of care and sympathy.
"My mum who is 87 years old and disabled arranged a probably last trip to see me who lives in Spain.
"This was something which wasn’t possible during the Covid pandemic."
The irate son added his mum had taken steps to organise assistance for the airport prior to her arrival.
He added: "She arranged 'assisted travel' with Birmingham Airport via the Ryanair ticketing process.
"She arrived on Sunday (May 1) three-hours early and presented herself to the “assisted travel” desk.
"She was guided in a wheelchair through security by staff and placed at the departure gate in plenty of time for her flight.
"Eventually the flight left without her despite her sitting at the gate because there were apparently not enough 'Ambulift' staff available.
"She was then unceremoniously basically taken back to landslide and dumped at the 'Assisted Travel' desk six-hours after arrival at the airport.
"She was told to make her own way home and if she wished to travel again to make her own way back to the airport the next day where she could book another Ryanair ticket for the additional cost of £100."
Another flight was booked for the following day, but she had to go through the same procedure again to get to the gate, arriving three hours early again.
She was assured that there would be help on hand 45-minutes before the flight.
But nobody arrived and it was only when she heard the final call for her flight that she flagged down a member of staff who took her to her gate.
Further stress was added when there were no specialist drivers available meaning Sheila was forced to leave her wheelchair behind and try to walk to the plane, Jeremy claims.
He said: "They forgot her again and she had to remind staff to take her to the gate.
"Then she had to get out of her wheelchair and 'run' onto the tarmac to the aircraft and climb the steps or it would have left her behind again.
"What’s the world coming to?"
Ms Cottrill added: "I was very upset. It has put me off ever doing it again."
Birmingham Airport said they are investigating what went wrong.
A spokesman told BirminghamLive: "We feel dreadful about the experience Mrs Cottrill had.
"We are looking into what happened with a view to making things right.
“We had over 110,000 customers travel through between Friday and Monday.
"Nearly 57,000 were departing passengers and 99.6% successfully caught their flight.
"We will look into the circumstances of anyone who missed their flight.
"We thank everyone for their patience and understanding.
“As always, our message to departing customers is: Help us help you keep queues moving by presenting at security 60 minutes before their flight time and removing any liquids, gels, pastes and electrical items from your bags before our security x-ray scanners."
A Ryanair spokesperson told BirminghamLive: "As a gesture of goodwill, Ryanair re-accommodated Ms Cottrill on the next available flight from Birmingham to Barcelona the next evening, at 8.50pm, May 2, free of charge.”
