A Scots teen left raging over a 13 hour flight delay has slammed Ryanair over an €8 compensation voucher.
Stephen May, 19, from Edinburgh, says the ordeal brought a "terrible" ending to his holiday after flying home with the airline. The music business student was in Nantes in France with his brother, friend and partner, but the getaway turned sour once they boarded the plane back to Scotland.
After a 40 minute wait on the aircraft, passengers were ordered to return to the terminal due to a 'small technical issue' on the plane. Edinburgh Live reports that it turned into a 13-hour wait, where Stephen claims they were offered an €8 food and drink voucher from the airline.
After Edinburgh Live contacted the airline, Stephen said he then was offered compensation. Ryanair has said that passengers were 'provided with multiple refreshment vouchers'.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Stephen said: "We didn't know when we would be leaving again. The staff didn't give us any information and just told us to wait at the gate. We were there for about two hours and there was nowhere to get food, there were just vending machines, and they only use certain cards too.
"We were eventually asked to move after two hours because they had to use the gate for another flight. We were then told to leave the airport. We had to go back through passport control, have our stamps crossed out, and were told to wait outside the airport.
"Ryanair did give us food and drink vouchers but only one for €8. A sandwich at that airport is about €7.10! We were there for 13 hours by the end."
Stephen and his group of friends, as well as the other disgruntled passengers, sat waiting in the sun 'for hours''. He explained that Ryanair was updating them via text.
"The flight was mainly full of Scottish people so we were all just lined up near the benches outside the airport waiting for a solution," he said. But it was ridiculous. We would get a text at like 2pm saying our flight was departing at 3pm. I said to my friends, 'That can't be right'. And then the next hour we would get the same sort of text."
While Stephen acknowledged the plane problem was out with the crew or company's control, he said he was less than impressed with how passengers were treated.
"It was just terrible. It was like we had all been forgotten about. At one point we hadn't received any updates for a couple of hours and I thought they would just try and ignore it had even happened," he said.
"When they knew there was a problem with the flight, they could have just told us to come back later. We could have gone back into the city and relaxed but instead, it was 13 hours of just sitting in an airport not knowing if we would get home that night. It was really tiring."
Eventually the group went back through security and passport control where they sat around hoping to hear some news. At around 9pm, they were told they could board. The plane took off at 10.40pm - some 13 hours after it was due to.
"I was just tired. When we were waiting around the airport I couldn't switch off, I was always on alert in case we got a notification. I think I slept for about 11 hours once I finally got home," said Stephen.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: "This flight from Nantes to Edinburgh (May 29) was delayed due to a minor technical issue. Affected passengers were notified and advised of their options and subsequently updated via SMS/email/App. This passenger chose to wait for the flight and was provided with multiple refreshment vouchers before departing for Edinburgh later that same day.
"Ryanair apologises for any inconvenience caused to affected passengers as a result of this unavoidable delay."
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