A group of Edinburgh festival-goers claim to have been stranded in Barcelona airport with no ‘food or water’ after their flight back to the capital was continuously delayed.
Mhairi Robertson, 25, had attended OffSonar in the Catalonian city along with friends Rachel Agnew, 29, Caitlin Kurtto, 24, Mark Smith, 23, Rowan Newlands, 22 and Sam Shepherds, 24. The music loving pals had a fantastic experience at the festival but their trip took a turn for the worse when their Ryanair flight was delayed on Monday night (June 19).
Mhairi says that their situation snowballed with mass confusion at the airport leading to people sleeping on the floor. She alleges that hotels had been provided for some passengers but that local taxi drivers had refused to take them to the accommodation or warned the group that they could potentially miss their rearranged flight due to the distance between the airport and their hotel.
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She claims that the group were given €4 vouchers for food but that these were invalid at the airport. The six friends say that they were left without adequate food and drink whilst their Ryanair flight was delayed 12 times after a technical fault was reported.
To make matters worse, a member of the group had suffered from a foot infection, and Mhairi says that a wheelchair was not provided to them by airport staff despite several requests being made.
Ryanair have refuted the groups claims, saying that several vouchers were offered for food and drink. They also claim that the group were offered a refund or a free change of flight.
They also disputed that there was confusion at the airport and also challenged the number of times the group said the flight was delayed. Ryanair said that Barcelona airport are responsible for providing wheelchair access.
“Our flight was due to leave at 6.45pm on June 19 from Barcelona going to Edinburgh but we have been told we will not be taking off until 9.30pm tonight (June 20),” Mhairi said.
“The flight has been delayed around 12 times from the original flight time - it has continued to move. No one would say why until a staff member said it was a technical fault and that they were flying a part over with an engineer from Stansted.
“We were relentlessly going to the desk asking for updates but no one seemed to know anything and we were told that there is no Ryanair representative in the airport. They said if we wanted to speak to someone then they would advise us to fly to Dublin.
“Hotels were arranged for some passengers after 2am this morning. We waited for almost an hour to go to the hotel but the representative struggled to answer simple questions about where it was or what it was called.
“She at first seemed not to know and then told us that she wasn’t allowed to say due to GDPR. When people were asking just for a name, or to see it for their own sake, she said no we are finished for the evening, you have now decided not to go.”
Mhairi says that when they eventually found out the location of the hotel but that local taxi drivers either refused to take them or warned them against making the trip if their rescheduled flight was due to take off at 10.45am. There was a fear that the group could potentially miss their flight due to the journey time involved between the airport and hotel.
They made the difficult decision to remain at the airport and sleep on the uncomfortable concrete floor. However their flight was delayed again to 4pm on Tuesday afternoon.
Images shared with Edinburgh Live appear to show dozens of passengers sleeping on the floor and mass confusion amongst the passengers as they awaited updates.
“We were sent a €4 voucher for food at around 8pm on Monday night but when we went to go spend it, it was invalid. There was no food or water provided at all.
“My friend has an infected foot and when we requested a wheelchair we were refused. Unfortunately our 10.45am flight was delayed again until 4pm but when that came around the pilot and staff came to tell us that we would not be taking off as the fault had not been fixed.
“People are starting to panic. It is delayed again until 9.30pm.”
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from Barcelona to Edinburgh (19 Jun) was not ‘delayed 12 times’ but was delayed overnight due to a minor technical issue with the aircraft. Affected passengers were notified and subsequently updated on the status of their flight through SMS, email and PUSH notification.
“After engineers realised that the technical issue would take longer to resolve than expected, passengers were advised of their options (a refund/free change of flight), however, these passengers chose to wait for the flight and were offered overnight accommodation and transport to/from Barcelona Airport.
“Ryanair sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused to passengers as a result of this unavoidable delay. Staff remain available at Barcelona Airport to assist/provide information to affected passengers as needed.”
Mhairi refutes that there was a Ryanair representative on the ground to give information to passengers. She also states that hotels were not made available to all passengers and that the information provided was often confusing.
