Several Ryanair passengers were left stranded in Edinburgh after available seats on their Fuerteventura to Dublin flight were capped.
Those travelling on the flight say that as many as 38 people were not able to board the flight that was set to take off on Thursday August 19 as a member of the cabin crew had fallen ill. These customers say that they had found it particularly difficult to return home to Dublin after a lack of support from Ryanair.
Paul Butler, along with his with Rita, were already on board the flight but offered to sacrifice their seats so that a family with a special needs child could travel home as one unit. He told RTE Liveline that the captain had announced over the tannoy that ‘there’s 150 people on, I think that’s all I can take', Dublin Live reports.
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He said: “So, we went into the terminal, and I think it was about 30 people in total who weren’t allowed on the flight. Eventually 12 of us were put on a flight to Edinburgh.
"We all got to Edinburgh assuming everything would be grand. When we got there, there was only a Ryanair electronic bag drop there. There was nobody there, no facilities or Ryanair service desk.
"So the people in Edinburgh Airport helped us as much as they could but they couldn't do anything. The number that (Ryanair) gave us, they tried to ring but there was no answer."
Paul looked at trying to get to Dublin and set about booking a flight independently but found that he would have been stung for £373 with luggage not included in the deal. "We assumed when we got to Edinburgh, after everything we did with getting the flight off voluntarily, that we'd be looked after but there was nothing," he said.
A helpful worker at Edinburgh Airport did thankfully manage to book them onto another flight to Dublin on the Friday afternoon but this meant that Paul and wife Rita were left with little choice but to book a hotel for the night in the middle of the Festival Fringe. Talking to RTE from the Scottish capital, Paul added that he had not heard “a sniff” from Ryanair.
Rachel Gorry, along with her 12-year-old cousin were amongst the passengers that took the Edinburgh flight. But she also informed RTE that her grandad was forced to come up with €500 to get the pair back to Ireland.
The 23-year-old said: "I had no idea what was happening. We got to the gate at 10:20am, it was supposed to close at 10:30am. A woman ended up coming over and told me to make sure the staff sees that I'm with a child, because they're letting children on.
"Everyone thought that they were overbooked. We were brought to the front of the line but at this stage it was full and we found out we weren't getting on the flight.
"Thankfully, everyone else who was in the same predicament were so helpful. There was a lovely couple in Fuerteventura that were making sure that me and my cousin were getting on the flight to Edinburgh, when we found out there was one.
"They got us on that. Then Paul and Rita helped us when we were in Edinburgh making sure we were okay. At this stage, I was on the phone to my family, once we found out that Ryanair weren't answering us. It was very stressful. I didn't get home until 11pm last night."
Meanwhile, at the time of Friday's Liveline show, a group of nine people were still in Lanzarote, where they were waiting for a flight to Barcelona and then another to Dublin.
Stephen Daly was among those passengers and he told Joe Duffy that when they got off the ferry from Fuerteventura, the taxis they had been promised were not there to pick them up. He was also concerned that Ryanair would only pay for one night’s accommodation there and not for the hotel in Barcelona.
A Ryanair spokeswoman told Dublin Live that the airline apologises to all affected passengers for the inconvenience and said that any passengers who incurred additional expenses can claim these back on their website.
She said: "A member of our cabin crew became ill shortly before the departure of this Fuerteventura to Dublin flight (18 Aug) and was therefore unable to perform their duties. Due to strict safety procedures, the flight had to operate with reduced passenger numbers and a small number of passengers were offloaded before the flight departed safely to Dublin.
"The affected passengers were offered the option of an overnight hotel in Fuerteventura or an alternative flight. Ryanair provides overnight accommodation for passengers affected by overnight delays and any passengers who organise their own accommodation or incur additional expenses can claim these back on Ryanair.com. We apologise sincerely to all affected passengers for this inconvenience."
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