200 Passengers on a Ryanair Flight Were Told to Take a Bus After Their 3-Hour Flight to Greece .....

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200 Passengers on a Ryanair Flight Were Told to Take a bus After Their 3-Hour Flight to Greece Landed 2 Countries Away
By Simon Calder, The Independent/ Lifestyle/ Insider/ thisinsider.com

• Nearly 200 Ryanair passengers on their way to Greece were left stranded at an airport more than 400 miles away after the flight was diverted because of poor weather conditions.
• Passengers said the only solution offered was to take an 18-hour-long bus ride.
• The Greek government sent an Aegean Airlines aircraft to deliver the passengers to their intended destination 24 hours later than scheduled.

Ryanair flight FR8582 left Stansted airport a little late at 5:19 p.m. on Friday afternoon, but was still expected to arrive in Thessaloniki before 10 p.m. — in time for a drink by the harborside in Greece's second city.

But while the Boeing 737 was over the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, about 125 miles from its destination, fog at the Greek airport triggered a diversion. Thessaloniki airport is adjacent to the Thermaic Gulf and susceptible to fog.

The obvious diversion airport was Skopje, serving the Macedonian capital - from which overland transport to the intended destination would have been straightforward.

But instead, the aircraft, with nearly 200 passengers on board, flew northeast into Bulgarian airspace. It passed close to Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, but did not land there.

The track then switched northwest, back towards Stansted, and eventually, the aircraft landed at Timisoara in northwest Romania. The city is close to the Hungarian border and nearly 500 miles — and two international frontiers — from Thessaloniki....."

Ryanair passengers hoping for a quick flight to Thessaloniki, Greece, found themselves 24 hours and two countries away after the flight was diverted because of poor weather conditions.
MikeDotta / Shutterstock


Richard

 

[Talent312]

I'm tempted to say the passengers shouldn't be surprised given the low-rent airline.
But this is beyond the pale. I wonder if there might be an EU fine in their future.
.

 

["Roger"]

Somewhat along the same lines as what Talent had to say, there is a reason that Ryan Air offers super cheap flights.

I can understand the attraction of the low prices, but passengers should realize that those low prices are financed somehow. They shouldn't expect to pay almost nothing and still get all the services guarantees that come with a more normal airline.