Dozens of passengers were left high and dry, unable to board their Ryanair flight from Dublin Airport to Portugal following a ‘hostile’ passport control experience.
Flight FR7337 from Lisbon to Dublin was scheduled to leave Lisbon Airport on Friday, September 20 at 10pm. However, due to a series of delays and technical glitches, over 60 passengers missed their flight.
Among the stranded passengers were Ross Lennon and his girlfriend who couldn’t board their flight home. Speaking to Dublin Live, he revealed that they could only return home today as all flights back to Dublin were fully booked.
He explained: “We were in the airport, about three and a half hours before our flight. All was good, we got through security and were looking for the flight on the monitor and saw it said 10.45pm. It was originally 10pm so we figured it was delayed.”
Ross was part of a group waiting at border control at 9:20pm when they noticed the flight time had been reverted back to 10pm. Over 60 people were still waiting at the gate when it closed and they were unable to board the plane, reports Dublin Live.
Fortunately, the couple have family with a house in the area where they have been staying since Friday. “We’re flying back home on Tuesday, and this incident happened on Friday,” said Ross.
“All of the weekend flights, Saturday and Sunday, were sold out across Ryanair, Aer Lingus and TAP.”
Mairead, a mother-of-three from Belfast, and her husband also missed their flight. Speaking to Belfast Live, she said: “Our flight was at 10pm and we arrived at the airport at 7pm and on the board it said it was going to be at 10.45pm – the minute the gate number was revealed, which was about 9.20pm, we got into the queue for passport control.”
“We had no prior knowledge that we would have to go through passport control. Two other flights were also called so everyone got into the queue at the same time and it made a massive queue. The queue became a really hostile environment with loads of pushing and shoving and lots of people shouting and screaming.”
With three groups trying to board flights, Mairead, her husband, and other passengers were left puzzled as to how they were expected to clear passport control in under 10 minutes. They approached an official expressing their concerns about missing their flight but were reassured they wouldn’t miss it and were told to get back in line.
However, the gate closed and 62 passengers were escorted back to the Ryanair desk where they were given the option to rebook another flight for a fee of €100.
“I was obviously quite upset but we did that,” Mairead added. “Ryanair said the airport had put up the wrong flight time information but physically, it was never going to be possible from the time the gate number went up to when boarding closed to get everyone through passport control.”
A Ryanair spokesperson explained to Dublin Live : “This flight was scheduled to depart Lisbon for Dublin at 22:00 on September 20. Due to staff shortages at Lisbon Airport’s passport control, a number of passengers missed this flight from Lisbon to Dublin (20 Sept).”
“The gate for this flight was scheduled to close at 21:30 30 mins prior to departure but remained open an additional 22mins (closing at 21:52), at which time these passengers had still not presented for boarding on this flight. It is each passenger’s responsibility to present at the boarding gate before it closes (as detailed on their boarding pass).”
“Should these passengers have presented at the boarding gate desk before it closed, they would have boarded this flight alongside the rest of passengers who did present at the gate on time. Passengers who missed this flight were given the option to pay a standard missed departure fee (€100) and travel on later flights from Lisbon to Dublin which 31 of these passengers did.”
The airline also pointed out that issues with screen displays fall under the purview of Lisbon Airport. Dublin Live has reached out to Lisbon Airport for comment.