Passenger removed from Ryanair flight from Budapest

An unusual case was reported by a reader of Utazómajom: on 28 June, Tuesday morning, they wanted to go from Budapest to Mallorca on a direct Ryanair flight. However, it turned out that there was one more passenger than seats.

The awkward incident

The Ryanair flight to Mallorca from Budapest was scheduled to depart at 9:25 AM, but was delayed by more than an hour and a half. That is the time it took for the crew to find out the root of the problem: the fact that there were one too many passengers on board than what they could carry, Utazómajom reports.

When the last passenger boarded the plane, they noticed that someone was not seated. The person was given a ticket for the seat that had already been occupied, as both boarding passes showed the same seat. Overbooking is quite commonplace in air transport, noizz.hu underscores.

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Selling more tickets than the number of seats is common

If there is demand, airlines will sell more tickets than they can seat on the plane, assuming (on the basis of serious calculations) that not all passengers will show up at departure. The current case is quite remarkable, because if that is the case, it usually becomes clear at the check-in desk, or at the latest at boarding, but sooner than when everyone is already on the plane.

Money offered for someone to get off

The crew then asked passengers if anyone would like to volunteer to get off the plane, but no one came forward. Then, they offered EUR 250 to anyone who would get off the plane and agree to a transfer to Mallorca, arriving the next day. Otherwise it would have been EUR 400 by default, because the distance is over 1500 km.

However, even despite the large amount of money, none of the passengers showed up and by then, the flight was already an hour and a half late. Understandably, the situation became tense, as no one wanted to be the one passenger who was the one to get off.

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The final solution

Finally, after a telephone conversation with their manager, the crew drew lots for the unlucky person, a young man travelling alone, who was led off the plane. The reader of Utazómajom said it was both very distressing and reassuring to watch.

As Utazómajom sums it up, it can happen at any time that an airline denies boarding. In such cases, in addition to compensation, they must find a way to get the passenger to their destination. A more fortunate version of this is when, in the case of normal airlines, there is no more space in economy class and they upgrade to business class.

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Source: Utazómajom, noizz.hu