A Ryanair passenger has said they were forced to share hotel rooms with strangers after a Dublin Airport flight was cancelled.
Maria was booked on a flight from Santander in Spain to Dublin on Sunday but the flight was cancelled last minute as passengers were already boarding the plane.
She told Newstalk on Wednesday: "We at the beginning were delayed two hours... we did passport control, we were boarding and in the very last minute we were told that the flight was cancelled.
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"At that stage it was 12.30am at the airport, we were all very tired and panicking - because it was midnight, and we didn't know what was going to happen, or where we would end up sleeping."
Maria said that passengers were transported to different hotels around two hours later. "When we arrived to our hotel, we were being told that Ryanair only booked 15 rooms - we were more than 40 people," she said.
"The hotel said that we don't have any other option than to share a room with another person from the flight. The ones who didn't fly with a friend or couple.. we ended up sharing the room with a complete stranger."
Maria said that thankfully she had been chatting to a nice woman in the queue and she was "lucky enough" to share with her. However she described the overall situation as "completely horrendous".
"We all were complaining because a lot of people were travelling alone," she said. "I actually was lucky enough to find a nice girl, who was happy to share the room with me.
"But what happened if I wouldn't have found anyone else: I wouldn't be feeling comfortable to sleep with someone that I don't really know.
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"The bed was like a huge bed that wasn't even divided - it was two single beds that were together".
Maria said the passengers' new flight was delayed again on Monday morning but they eventually took off at 11am.
A Ryanair spokeswoman told Dublin Live that it is the airline's policy that they never request passengers to share rooms and this situation was caused by an error between the hotel provider and the airport handling agent.
She said: “In the rare event of an overnight delay/cancellation, accommodation is sourced for passengers who cannot return to their own home that night. Ryanair never requests that passengers share a room and this is not Ryanair’s policy.
"Regrettably, on this occasion there was an error between the hotel provider and the airport handling agent who requested the rooms. Ryanair was unaware that this passenger was asked to share a room with another passenger and had we been aware we would have sourced alternative accommodation, or had the passenger sourced their own accommodation, we would have reimbursed their expenses.
"We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to this passenger and a member of our customer service team will contact them directly.”
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