14 passengers found their holiday to Spain involuntarily lengthened after Ryanair forgot to board them and the plane took off without them.

Ryanair Totally Forgets To Board 14 Passengers, As Plane Takes Off With Them Still Waiting For Bus To Aircraft

All 14 passengers checked in and arrived to the gate on time at Palma Airport (PMI) on the Spanish island of Mallorca on April 30, 2022. They were traveling on Ryanair flight FR5729 to Malaga (AGP).

Ryanair uses remote gates and air stairs at many airports, which requires bussing passengers from the airport gate area to the aircraft. Here, passengers from the flight filled up two busses to capacity, leaving 14 passengers left. They were told to wait and another shuttle would arrive for them.

Only it never did. And then the flight took off.

While all were accommodated on a flight to Malaga later in the day, many missed onward connections. That included Susana Guerrero, a cancer patient traveling to malaga for chemo therapy.

Unsurprisingly, Ryanair blamed its airport handler–

“The airport handler who operates the airport shuttle bus at Palma De Mallorca failed to collect this small group of passengers awaiting their bus at the airport gate to bring them to their plane, causing them to miss their flight to Malaga (30 Apr),”

“Affected passengers received refreshment vouchers and were reaccommodated on a later flight, with one passenger opting for a refund. Ryanair apologises sincerely to passengers for this inconvenience.”

Ah yes, “refreshment” vouchers. To add insult to injury, Ryanair only offered passengers a food and beverage good for 4€ during the multi-hour delay.

CONCLUSION

This situation is so frustrating because the passengers literally did nothing wrong. They showed up on time, proceeded to the gate area, prepared to board the aircraft, and were told to wait. How frustrating and how insulting that after being delayed for several hours, they were only offered a 4€ voucher. You cannot even buy a drink for that these days…