Nearly 30 passengers missed a Ryanair flight from Bristol Airport to Barcelona after they claimed the gate number did not appear on the information boards until the final call. By the time the passengers got to gate 13, they said they were told that it was too late to board. They then had to wait as their bags were taken off the flight and have had to find new flights or cancel their plans. An investigation has now been launched at the airport to find out what happened.
A spokesperson for the airport said that while the “message did appear later than normal due to an error” there was still 25 minutes to get to the flight. Laura Stewart, from Caerphilly, was due to fly on the 7.30am flight from Bristol to Barcelona on Thursday morning for a long weekend break, said they were refused permission to board when she got to the gate.
Another passenger, Fiona Emery, was travelling with her husband and two daughters. They arrived at the airport two hours before the flight and were watching the announcement board. She said: “The Barcelona flight and the boarding time wasn’t displayed on the announcement board until the final call for the flight. It popped up two minutes before the gate closed.
Once we arrived at gate 13, we were turned away as ‘there were too many people to process onto the flight’ and were told to wait by the door. Approximately 30 people were stood outside this gate and we were all told to leave and book another flight as ‘we should’ve planned our time better and watched the notice board’. We were all sent to gate 2 and passed around by many different staff members who were trying to figure out what had gone wrong.”
A spokesperson from Bristol Airport said: “We apologise to passengers whose travel plans were disrupted today. The final boarding message did appear later than normal due to an error. When the boarding information was correctly displayed, customers still had 25 minutes to make their way to the gate. The majority of customers arrived at the gate on time and boarded the flight. We’re investigating with our partners Ryanair and Swissport to understand how this happened and are firmly committed to working with them to provide the best possible service to all of our customers.”
Ryanair said screen displays were the responsibility of the airport and not the airline but a spokesperson said: “Due to an error with the flight display screens at Bristol Airport, a small number of passengers missed this flight from Bristol to Barcelona (22 Aug). Should these passengers have presented at the boarding gate before it closed, they would have boarded this flight from Bristol to Barcelona alongside the other 160 passengers who did present at the gate on time. This flight from Bristol (22 Aug) departed for Barcelona at 7:58 local time.”
The incident has led to frustration among the affected passengers, with some expressing concerns about the lack of customer service and the financial impact of missing their flight. Despite efforts to transfer to alternative flights, many faced additional expenses and inconveniences. The airport and airline have acknowledged the error and pledged to investigate the situation to prevent similar incidents in the future.