Passengers trying to fly to Manchester Airport have been forced to fork out hundreds of Euros after being left stranded in Prague. Those desperate to fly back to the UK told the Manchester Evening News as many as 120 people were stuck in the Czech capital after their Ryanair flight left without them.
The company denies '120 people were still to board the plane', but admits a number of passengers were delayed by airport security and missed the flight. Some were able to book a last minute seat on an easyJet flight home later the same evening, while others were forced to travel elsewhere or stay in Prague.
The 'chaos' unravelled after passengers hoping to board the 5.30pm flight last Friday (June 24) tried to get through security at Prague's Václav Havel Airport. Instead of security following check-in like at most airports, passengers told the M.E.N. they had to wait for their gate number to be confirmed first.
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They then went to a security check close to the gate, alongside passengers for another flight to Edinburgh. Those affected say the gate number took a long time to be confirmed and the queue took a long time to clear.
Once many of the Manchester passengers made it through security, the doors at the gate were closed and staff began to break the bad news. Hannah Molloy, from Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, had travelled to Prague with her partner Andy.
The 37-year-old told the M.E.N. : "There were 120 of us still to get onto the flight. About half of us managed to get onto the easyJet flight, others had gone to Stansted and others had gone back to Prague to get a hotel. It was absolute chaos.
"There was no one from Ryanair. We spoke to security and they said 'it's nothing to do with us'. We were told they were 'going to miss the flight slot' but obviously the gate staff knew that there were a lot of people around - they could see us out of the window.
"They knew we were not going to make it and no one said anything, but we had all got there in plenty of time. The flight took off with about half of us - there were groups of people that were split up and talking to their friends who were on the plane."
Hannah and Andy coughed up £300 to fly back to Manchester on the easyJet flight later on Friday night. "Luckily we could but there are a lot of people that would not be able to," she added.
Clive Dobbs, 53, had travelled to Prague for a 'great holiday' with his wife Liz, 52. The couple also travelled back on the later easyJet flight to Manchester before driving home to Nottingham, where they returned at around 6am.
"As soon as our gate was announced we headed straight there," said Clive, who described the security arrangements as 'strange'. "As soon as we got there, there was already a queue of hundreds, and maybe about three people doing security.
"Of course Liz and I worried, especially since she’s diabetic. By the time our plane was meant to depart we were still queuing. As we were getting to the front, people were getting through so we thought 'OK they’ve held the plane back we’ll be fine'.
"Eventually a few people ahead of us get told they can’t get on. They then tell the rest of us we’re stuck here until around midnight. I was absolutely furious."
Clive added: "We sat there starving, miserable and frankly traumatised for hours. It’s totally put me and Liz off ever going abroad again."
Not all passengers were able to board the later easyJet flight. Mia Munro had travelled to Prague with her mum Carina.
She says the pair, from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, had arrived at the airport 'a couple of hours' before the flight but were 'not told until really late' which gate they needed to go to. "I kept saying 'we've not been through security yet, surely we can't just board the plane'," said Mia, 20.
"We got the gate number, and that's when the problems started. We were all in this massive queue and it wasn't moving for about 30 minutes, then suddenly it started moving. It took quite a while to get through."
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Mia, a student at the University of Sunderland, says that once she had made it through security a man began to say 'no more people' were allowed on the flight. "They said it was a Ryanair decision and they had closed the gate," she added.
"We were all panicking, there was a big group of us." Carina, 55, is a phlebotomist for the NHS and was worried about getting back home for work.
The pair tried to book seats on the easyJet flight - but it had sold out. They ended up staying another night in Prague before getting train to Berlin and a flight back to Manchester from the German capital.
Mia added: "If it was our mistake we would be honest and say it was our mistake - but I don't see how so many people can make the same mistake. One lady we spoke to had arrived four hours early."
Ryanair insists the issue was completely out of its control. A spokesperson for Ryanair added: “Due to airport security delays at Prague Airport, a group of passengers arrived late to the gate and missed their flight to Manchester (June 24).
"Ryanair passengers are advised via their email/Ryanair app to arrive at least three hours before their scheduled departure time. We regret that these airport security delays at Prague, which are entirely out of our control, caused these passengers to miss their flight.”
A spokesperson for Prague Airport said: "We are really sorry for that situation. We're investigating what happened."
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