Fuming Ryanair flyers were left stranded in Edinburgh after being diverted 480km from their intended destination of London Stansted.
They've described the "appalling" situation which left them without without replacement travel.
After boarding their flight from Oslo, they were shocked and confused when they were told they would be landing in the Scottish capital as London Stansted closed its runway on Sunday due to snow, Edinburgh Live reports.
READ MORE: Rare weather event to bring freezing conditions to an end as Met Eireann issue new warning
Once they landed in Edinburgh, the group sat in the plane on the tarmac for two hours. They were eventually allowed inside the airport - only to be told they would have to wait on a bus or organise their own travel home.
They were assured the bus taking them to London would arrive in an hour, but were furious when their replacement travel option didn’t show up at all.
This left many passengers, including families with young children, with little option but to pay for their own travel home - a cost Ryanair later assured passengers would be reimbursed.
Nikki Seddon, 35, told Edinburgh Live: “This whole ordeal has been emotionally, physically and financially draining.
“I fully appreciate things are out of our control, however the total disregard to update passengers regularly, provide onward travel and offer a simple drink of water is beyond me. Complete lack of customer care, forcing the passengers to find a solution to a pretty tumultuous issue.
“This situation is no fault of the flight crew, but the way it’s been handled is appalling. So many young children also.”
Travellers also complained that there was a lack of staff available to ask questions to and get guidance from during the distressing experience.
Another passenger said: “We took off, got 85% of the way to Stansted according to flight radar and then we diverted to Edinburgh. They didn’t tell us until 45 minutes to landing.
“We landed at Edinburgh and joined the massive line of planes without gates. The staff at Edinburgh kept us on the plane for two hours on the tarmac before finally letting us off. We landed at midnight and were let off the plane at 2am.
“We were the last plane to disembark, we get into the terminal and are sent to Swissport customer service desk who told us that there are two options, train at 5am that we pay for ourselves and Ryanair reimburse or we wait for the free bus that was due in an hour.
“Everyone believed the bus idea, until that hour turned into two hours, three hours waiting for it. I understand it’s not the staff’s fault about diversion and weather issues but to continue pointing towards a bus idea that was never going to happen was horrendous.
“We waited until 6am before giving up and having to pay for a tram, then train down to London and then a further two trains to get home. Still on the way home now.
“The coach was going to have to take 11 hours according to staff, and by 06:00 they were still chasing the bus idea, however 90% of passengers that were stuck on the floor for the entire night gave up and chose their own way home, it was pretty hopeless.”
Flights into Stansted airport were suspended on Sunday evening after significant snow closed one of the runways.
A Ryanair spokeswoman said: “Due to ongoing severe snowy weather across the UK, Stansted runway has closed temporarily disrupting flights to/from the airport last night (11 Dec) / today (12 Dec). Affected passengers have been notified and advised of their options.
“As the snowy weather continues across the UK, our teams are working hard to minimise disruption to customers and Ryanair advises all customers flying to/from the UK today (12 Dec) to check the Ryanair website/app for flight status updates before travelling to the airport.
“We sincerely apologise for these weather-related disruptions which are entirely beyond our control.”
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