Scandalous! Ryanair left many Hungarians in London without food, help, accommodation
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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.
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.