'Ryanair left us stranded at airport when horror storm stopped plane landing'
A family are “stranded” after their flight failed to land in Aberdeen due to the severe weather conditions from Storm Babet.
After holidaying in San Pedro, Spain, the Hunter family were surprised to find out their Ryanair flight home was still running - despite the red weather warnings in their home of Aberdeenshire. Matthew Ward hunter says the flying experience was “chaotic” and they have now been left stuck in Edinburgh with no accommodation.
The flight attempted to make a “rocky” landing at its set arrival time of 4:15pm but was forced to divert south to Edinburgh, where it landed at 5pm. After waiting for over an hour on the plane, passengers were allegedly told they would be provided with accommodation - but when the Hunter’s arrived at the hotel, they say no room had been booked for them.
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Ryanair has apologised for “any inconvenience caused”, adding that the booking which they made for the family had been cancelled at short notice. They claim they informed Matthew that the booking was cancelled and advised him to make his own booking - for which they would compensate the three-generations of the family stuck in Edinburgh.
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Storm Babet has thus far claimed three lives in the UK (Daily Record)Matthew explained to EdinburghLive : "The pilot let us know that we wouldn’t be able to land in Aberdeen so the flight would be diverted to Edinburgh. However, the communication has just been so poor in every sense of the word. Eventually, we were told that they would book rooms for us but we had no communication whatsoever, no staff turned up to talk to us after we landed.
"After two hours of waiting, it was around 9pm by this time, they attempted to find us somewhere to stay in Edinburgh but there was so much trouble with it. There was a line of people waiting for a room and by this point, our party was split up.
"We were then told that we were getting put in a taxi and being sent to the Mercure Hotel on Princes Street. The taxi driver got lost on the way and when we got there, they said that they had no booking for us. Thankfully and by absolute luck, a cancellation came in and we were given a family room."
However, the following morning the family continued to face chaos and still had no answers as to how they were going to get back to Aberdeen. According to Matthew, they received a message from Ryanair saying a taxi would come and pick them up and take them back to the airport, however, he says their transport did not show up.
The Hunter family were stuck in the plane for over an hour after landing (Edinburgh Airport Limited)Some other passengers from their flight were told to get a train back to Aberdeen, however due to the weather conditions and the red weather warning in place for the East of the country due to Storm Babet, there are no trains or buses running North of Edinburgh - leaving families stranded in the capital.
Matthew shared how the Mercure hotel had no availability for them to stay another night, as they are currently still in Edinburgh and have had to fork out for another hotel room elsewhere, saying the airline has left them to their own devices.
"The hotel is now completely booked up for tonight (Friday October 20) so we are now having to find another hotel, pay for it ourselves and claim back the money. We have no idea how long we will be here for", Matthew said. "We’ve been abandoned basically with the instruction to make your way back to Aberdeen and we will pay for all your travel.
"There has been a complete lack of communication from the beginning and we all agree that they shouldn’t have attempted to take off from Spain in the first place. I can say with confidence that we will never travel with Ryanair again. It's been a total disaster."
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from Alicante to Aberdeen (19 Oct) diverted to Edinburgh as a result of Storm Babet. Affected passengers were notified and advised of their options. Despite Ryanair’s best efforts to organise group transport to Aberdeen, we were unable to do so, and passengers were advised that they could arrange individual transport from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and claim back expenses on http://Ryanair.com, and that any passengers that were unable to arrange individual transport could avail of overnight accommodation organised by Ryanair.
Ryanair booked hotel accommodation and transport from the hotel back to Edinburgh Airport the following day (20 Oct) for Mr. Ward Hunter and his family, which was communicated to him via SMS.
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"Regrettably, the provider booked to transport Mr. Ward Hunter and his family back to Edinburgh Airport cancelled the booking at short notice and Ward Hunter and his family were advised to book transport from the hotel to Edinburgh Airport directly and claim back expenses on http://Ryanair.com .
"We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused as result of this weather-related disruption, which is entirely beyond Ryanair’s control.”
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