I lost my £1,500 dream holiday during Manchester Airport chaos – despite the plane even turning back
A FAMILY lost their £1,500 dream holiday after missing their flight during the ongoing chaos at Manchester Airport - despite their plane returning to the runway.
Michelle Donohue, 32, planned a four day trip to Rome with her husband Robert and their 12-year-old son.
They were due to fly out from Manchester Airport on April 5 on the 7.15am Ryanair flight for their first trip abroad since the pandemic, and arrived four hours early knowing the current situation at the airport.
Despite having their boarding passes, and only having to go through security, they still had to wait an hour to get through, but faced chaos when staff opened another gate.
Michelle, from Skelmersdale, told : "They opened a lane for us, then people started pushing past people, my husband ended up getting dragged back to about four or five people.
"People were just in a bit of a panic and then we got to that security line and it just stopped, it seemed like hours and hours and hours."
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Despite staff calling for anyone who had a flight soon, Michelle said they then faced problems at security as huge piles of trays caused more delays.
She said despite showing staff her boarding pass to get through, her son was "panicking" as people pushed past.
As soon as they got to the gate at 7:10am, they were told they had missed their flight, along with 20 other people.
She said: "They said to us, the plane won't let you on, it's gone, that gate closed at quarter to seven but we were like, 'we've been here four and half hours'.
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"They said 'I know, but it's not Ryanair's fault'. More people turned up and it turns out there were 20 of us that were stuck in that queue."
Not only that, but the plane which took off, then returned to the airport with a medical emergency - but they still weren't allowed on as the pilot said all baggage and passengers had been accounted for.
After being unable to get on the flight, Michelle said they faced more problems trying to get their baggage bag with "hundreds of other people's bags" left in piles, some from nearly six days ago.
She continued: "It was just an absolute nightmare. You can see the staff are overworked and doing two or three jobs at the same time and there were some that when they were delegated one job, they were fine and they were happy and they could do it well.
"It's traumatic, it's put me off going to that airport and I feel like this is going to be going on for a long time, it's not an easy fix this.
"There were people collapsing, some girl getting medical assistance and the group we were with, they were so upset- there were Italian family members trying to get back home."
"TRAUMATIC"
Michelle and her husband paid £1,500 for the flights and while they were able to get refunds for the activities booked in Rome, her travel insurance won't be able to pay out for the flight due to the unprecedented circumstances of why she missed it.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This Manchester - Rome flight (05 April) departed at 07.15am as scheduled carrying 160 passengers on board. Boarding for this flight closed 30 mins prior to take-off (06.45am).
"As per standard procedure, passengers cannot be accepted on board once a flight has closed – even in the unusual event of the aircraft returning to stand. Ms Kane and her family arrived at the boarding gate at 07:10am, 25 mins after boarding had closed, and were politely advised that the flight had closed, it couldn’t be reopened, and that they had missed their flight.
"We understand that some passengers are experiencing delays at Manchester Airport due to security staff shortages, however these unfortunate delays are entirely out of our control. As this flight operated as scheduled, the standard T&Cs, which Ms Kane accepted at the time of booking, apply and no refund is due.”
Passengers have experienced travel chaos at Manchester Airport in recent days, prompting managing director Karen Smart to quit her job.
The airport has warned travellers that they should expect long queues and delays for months to come.
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It's not just Manchester that has suffered with travel problems - airports and airlines across the country are facing big problems due to staff shortages.
Yesterday, British Airways cancelled 78 flights from Heathrow, and easyJet has cancelled hundreds of flights since the weekend.
