Ryanair article in Local paper

[eurostar builder]

ANGRY passengers have vowed never to fly with Ryanair again, saying they were left in the lurch by the cutprice airline on Saturday night.

Scores of people who booked a flight to Dublin turned up at Bournemouth airport to be told they were facing a long delay to their trip.

A mechanical problem with the Ryanair plane was blamed for the hold-up on the service due to leave at 6.10pm from the Hurn airport.

The flight eventually left at 9.45pm after Ryanair flew in a replacement plane.

But some passengers say they abandoned their journey after being told they would have to wait until midnight for a flight.

Diving journalist James Burns, 41, from Poole, was set to give a seminar to members of the Irish Diving Federation yesterday but cancelled his plans after hearing of the long delay.

"We were told there wouldn't be a plane available until ten past midnight, so I asked if I could go home to wait," he said.

"But they said if I took my bags back, I was off the flight, so I just went home again."

He added: "I won't ever fly with Ryanair again. I was really disgusted with the way we were treated."

Marion Griffin, 46, from Canford Heath was planning to visit a friend in Dublin, but also abandoned her trip after being told of the hold-up.

"I went through check-in and then I heard there was going to be a delay until at least midnight, so I gave up and went home."

Airport spokeswoman Sally Windsor said passengers were told at around 5.30pm that it would be midnight before the flight to Dublin would leave.

"Passengers then had two options - either to wait for the flight or ask for a full refund, and some people took the decision to leave," she said.

"We then got a message through from Ryanair at around 6.15pm that there would be a replacement flight at around 9.30pm."

A spokesman for Ryanair was unavailable for comment.

First published: October 10

[Buster the Bear]

So what is the issue here?

Plane broke, Ryanair flew in another. They could have totally cancelled the flight and left folk to get a refund from thier credit card.

[jabird]

Or told everyone to drive to Holyhead and jump on the ferry. They even had the gall to bring in a replacement aircraft three hours before they said they would.

As Ryanair bashing attempts go, this is one of the lamest. One guy who chose to miss his diving conference, rather than get to his hotel a bit late. Note his profession - a journalist, trained in the art of story creation. I doubt any of the other passengers would have been that fussed.

Because of course, none of the other airlines operating flights from the Solent region ever have problems, do they?

[bmibabyfc]

some pax never understand do they how it all works and even if you tell them it doesnt make sense......

as much as i dislike ryanair i cannot bash them in any way on this and they should not be blamed for anything.

the example of one pax wanting to wait at home until the flight goes, i hate it when they think that is the right answer. As much as you tell them that things can change and go much earlier they do not listen. Imagine if all 130 pax on a flight wanted to do that, and the a/c became servisable or an a/c change occured??? How would you inform them?? call 130 of them on the phone??? its amazing but they just do not understand!!

One incident we had at EMA once after expecting and showing a 3 hr delay, we managed to do an a/c change and despite telling all pax to stay in lounge and listen for updates we were two missing at the gate. The delay had come forward by about an hour or so. We had all pax on board and still following call after call the pax were no where to be found. I mean you can imagine all the other pax sat on the a/c waiting to go and no doubt thinking "god are bmibaby going to let this a/c go yet??" - not realising its two bloody pax were waiting for!!!! Anyway i decide to go into their booking to see if they have a mobile number we can contact them on, as there is i call it, and find out the pax were down at the hotel down the road having dinner, i said sorry your going to be too late and we offloaded them and the bags!!

The pax turned up at the airport info desk 5 mins later! They were not happy but there own stupid fault, its not fair to continue a delay to the other pax just because these two couldnt be bothered to wait like everyone else.

[jabird]

bmibabyfc,

I can undestand any pax wanting to get away from miserable airport food, but a delayed flight isn't the time to do this.

Isn't it technically against terms of carraige to leave the airport after check in? It might be one thing going into a neighbouring airport hotel, which at least has the departures screens, but heading down the road is asking for trouble.

I can see how pax who miss check in deadlines would get irate though if the flight itself is heavily delayed, but I suppose there are good staffing reasons for this too. I'm sure the capability would exist for airlines to send text messages to customers in the event of serious delays, but I would imagine that the drawbacks of doing this would substantially outweigh the benefits, especially for Ryanair - unless they could somehow charge all passengers for the service. On that note, I am surprised that neither Ryanair or any other airline has yet started charging passengers who turn up late to the gate. How long before they do so?

[bmibabyfc]

yeah it is actually illegal i believe to leave airport once you have checked luggage in - due to the fact that if a problem with your bag they need you back, and obviously depending on whats in the bag could cause a major security alert i.e an item that causes major suspicion could lead to an airport evacuation.

I like the text idea, however, in my view it would def not work, there simply is not time to do it, and you could imagine the mayhem if the text did not get through for some reason what would happen?

Ha! - it would be funny if ryanair charged pax for being late at gate, but would they delay the flight to get payment or get them out to a/c ?? - with ryanairs stupid turnaround (that really p****s me off, due them breaking rules) would it bother them??

[egnxema]

Do Ryanair turnrounds break the rules? How's that?

[bmibabyfc]

well they dont really break the rules to a degree but........

they block the airport up a bit, by that i mean they offload a flight and walk the o/b pax as well at the same time, so what you get is the o/b queing on the ramp before the crossing whilst the i/b are getting off.

Ive had many an arguement with the handling agent with regards to this. we were wanting to offload our a/c a stand or two up, but couldnt due to this. The normal practise and co-operation with airlines before fr came in was that you offload the flight that came on to stand first and then you can offload the next. Boarding does take priority over offloading however all the airlines (low cost) have tight turnarounds so some co-operation should be there - not when they are involved!

By FR walking their pax out we could not offload, causing us a delay just because they couldnt wait 5 mins!!!