AROUND 150 Ryanair passengers were left stranded at a European airport following massive queues.
The passengers at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport in France missed their Ryanair flight last week due to lengthy queues at border control caused by staff shortages.
The flight to London Stansted left without some of its passengers as queues at border control meant they couldn’t reach their gate in time for the flight.
One passenger told The Connexion that it was “pure chaos” adding that “there was no structure at the airport” and “people pushing at all times”.
The woman’s flight wasn’t the only one to be impacted either – in total four flights were boarding at the same with destinations including Marrakech in Morocco, Tunisia and two to London.
Reportedly, around 500 people were in the border control area including passengers with babies.
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The woman also revealed that despite just managing to get onboard her flight, the pilot announced shortly after that 150 passengers had not made it.
On its website, the UK Civil Aviation Authority states: “Airports will try to do their best to ensure a smooth operation and provide passengers with a comfortable journey. However, sometimes problems do occur.
“If you miss a flight due to a long queue at security, even though you arrived at the airport on time, it is unlikely that an airline would pay compensation or consider itself obliged to offer you a free alternative flight.
“We are pleased to see that some airlines are helping their passengers find alternative flights voluntarily.
“We would recommend that you contact your travel agent or airline to help book you onto an alternative flight, but you may need to pay extra to do this.
“If you have taken out travel insurance, contact your insurance provider to see if your expenses are covered and make sure you keep receipts for these.”
A Ryanair spokesperson told Sun Travel: “Due to delays caused by border control staff shortages at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport on 30 May, a number of passengers booked to travel from Toulouse to London Stansted were not in the boarding gate area when boarding for their flight closed and missed their flight from Toulouse to London Stansted.
“All passengers that were at the boarding gate when this flight from Toulouse to London Stansted boarded were accommodated and travelled without incident.”
Sun Travel has contacted Toulouse-Blagnac Airport for comment.