Was Ryanair Really Wrong To Leave 89 Passengers In Lanzarote?

On February 25, a Ryanair flight from Lanzarote (ACE) in the Canary Islands to Bristol (BRS) in the United Kingdom was forced to depart half empty after passengers were left stuck in passport control.

Flight FR4756 was scheduled to depart Lanzarote at 3:15 p.m. local time, however as most of the passengers headed to Bristol were UK nationals, they had to pass through the non-Schengen area, requiring their passports to be manually checked and stamped. This queue quickly became congested, resulting in many passengers not being able to make it to the gate before closing.

The Ryanair crew at the time opted not to wait any longer, and unloaded bags belonging to those still stuck in the queue, a process which took over an hour. The flight left Lanzarote at 4:28 p.m. and arrived in Bristol 46 minutes behind schedule. As a result, 89 passengers were left stranded on the Spanish autonomous island.

The incident was covered extensively by British press, resulting in Ryanair issuing the following statement:

“Due to passport control delays at Lanzarote Airport, a number of passengers missed this flight from Lanzarote to Bristol. Should these passengers have presented at the boarding gate desk before it closed, they would have boarded this flight alongside the 90 passengers who did present at the gate on time.”

Was Ryanair really wrong to leave them stranded?

Every day, somewhere across the world, passengers get left behind for not getting to the airport in a timely manner, and situations like this should not be surprising. Given that the majority of customers flying out do not have the privilege of exiting via the Schengen area, travelers should factor in extra time to account for longer queues at the airport.

Some argue that in the time Ryanair spent waiting for bags to be unloaded, they could have just waited instead if they were willing to risk being delayed. That’s a fair point, but it’s also about making a decision. They can’t predict how long passport control would have taken to validate those 89 passengers, and surely there were passengers heading on to other destinations in the United Kingdom, which would have further exacerbated the situation.

Ryanair is known for its on-time record, and they don’t play games with departure times when they are not in the wrong. While the flight did leave late as a result of bags having to be unloaded, it was simply part of the decision-making process. That’s just like when passengers get to the gate after the cutoff time and ask to get on even if the aircraft is still connected to the jet bridge.

It’s sad that so many passengers were inconvenience, but this one Lanzarote flight is just a small cog in Ryanair’s bigger machine.

Lanzarote needs to step up

I wouldn’t put blame squarely on passengers though as Lanzarote sees a significant inflow of tourist traffic from the United Kingdom. As a result, airport officials need to increase staffing at its airports (especially those on the Canary Islands) given that this isn’t the first time such an incident has taken place.

As highlighted by Aviation24.be, passengers were stuck at passport entry checkpoints for hours as a result of 17 back-to-back arrivals of non-EU flights. They also noted that the situation could get worse when the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) is fully introduced as passengers entering the EU (not registered before under the new system) have to their biometrics taken (e.g. photo and finger printing). This could also be another potential bottleneck during busy periods.

I always remember my first time traveling from Aruba to New York, being completely unaware that Aruba offers U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Preclearance. Even though I got to the airport three hours ahead of time, the check in lines were extremely long, and after factoring the pre-clearance and re-screening experience, I made it to the gate with just about 5 minutes before the cutoff window.

Even if airports face bottlenecks, customers must look out for their own interests at the end of the day. It’s better to play it safe by arriving earlier to account for any issues along the way. Ryanair usually advises non-EU customers to get to the airports earlier than their E.U. counterparts to avoid situations like what happened in Lanzarote.

Add as preferred source on Google Follow on WhatsApp