Scandalous! Ryanair left many Hungarians in London without food, help, accommodation
Ryanair, the Irish low-cost airline, left 150 people in a London airport yesterday evening due to an extensive and sudden snowfall paralysing air traffic. However, the main problem of the passengers derived from the total incompetence Ryanair staff exhibited, offering no help, food or accommodation in the British capital. On top of that, many of the passengers were families with kids.
Unprofessional airline?
According to ripost.hu, huge chaos broke out at a London airport yesterday evening. Due to a sudden snowfall, a Ryanair plane could not take off, so the passengers had to wait more than 17 hours without help, food, drink and information.
The plane was scheduled to depart at 6.25 pm from London Stansted Airport to Budapest. However, flight number FR8199 (a Boing 737-8AS-type plane) could not take off because of the weather, so the passengers, including more than 100 Hungarians remained in Britain. Ryanair did not cancel the flight. The company postponed its departure because of the disadvantageous weather circumstances.
The problem was not that. All travelers know that no airline can prepare for extreme weather situations. However, passengers were outraged by the unprofessional way the Irish budget airlines handled the situation, ripost.hu, a Hungarian tabloid, said.
Ryanair offered no help
One of the passengers said that Ryanair provided no information to them. There was no food and accommodation offered, and the question of compensation did not even come up in the discussion with the airline employees. To make matters worse, there was a person, who was actually told to get the hell out of the airport. “We were yelled at by staff saying that nobody should leave without their belongings”, a passenger told Bors, a Hungarian news magazine.
“We did not receive food or a meal ticket, and no information was provided about our luggage. We did not even know where they were. There was no place to smoke, cells did not work, and there was no electricity, WiFi or phone network”, another passenger complained. He added that such a big company should have prepared for such cases during winter.
On Sunday evening, passengers could only rebook their tickets for next Wednesday. However, since their flight was not cancelled, only postponed, nobody did so. Furthermore, many passengers were underage and needed to wait for more than 17 hours, resting, sleeping on the floor and benches of the airport on blankets and coats. HERE you can check out the photos the passengers sent to ripost.hu.
Bors sent their questions to Ryanair but has received no reply yet. They also inquired whether the passengers were eligible for compensation. Passengers told Bors that their new plane had arrived by Monday midday and they were able to do the bearing. If all goes according to plan, they will hopefully make it home by this afternoon.
Read alsoEasyjet leaving Budapest?
Source: ripost.hu
Sounds just likeWizz Air. But unlike the latter, Ryanair does stick to the law regarding compensation.
You get what you pay for. According to EU regulations (which do apply to Ryan Air):
If assistance is not offered and you paid for your own meals and refreshments, the airline should reimburse you, provided the expenses were necessary, reasonable and appropriate. You should keep all receipts for this purpose. You only have the right to assistance as long as you have to wait for re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or a return flight.