A COUPLE claim that they were left ‘stranded’They lost nearly half of their holiday when their Ryanair flight was delayed 130 miles because of stormy weather.
Martyn Gray, 37 and Emma Gatenby 38, both from Darlington County Durham, were looking forward to their four day trip to Gran Canaria.
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They claim that it took them 36 additional hours to reach their hotel because their plane had to land at another island.
According to the couple, they took off at Newcastle Airport on Sunday September 25, but were diverted by Gran Canaria’s storm to Lanzarote after circling for more that an hour.
Martyn claimed that they were forced to take two ferry journeys, including a stop in Fuerteventura before finally arriving at their Gran Canaria hotel.
The mechanic and garage owner, said: “It was so stressful and no one was telling us anything – it put a real dampener on the whole holiday.
“We were really looking forward to going and we were only meant to be there for four days, so it took nearly half our holiday to get to the hotel.
“We got diverted to Lanzarote and the cabin crew told us to get our bags as normal.
Everyone was trying to get to the Ryanair desk to ask what was going on but they couldn’t tell us. It was chaos. There were also older couples and a woman with her baby.
Martin claims that they were eventually told to board coaches to ferry terminal, where they were left in the rain for over an hour.
He added: “We eventually got put on some coaches to get a ferry but no one there knew we were coming so they didn’t know whether we had to pay or not.
“We waited outside in the rain for over an hour before finally getting on the ferry to Fuerteventura. We’ve pretty much done a tour of all the Canary Islands!”
Martyn stated that Ryanair personnel were not on the ground to assist them or give them directions. They had to rely upon fellow passengers to figure out what was going on.
He said: “They put us up in a hotel for the night before we had to get another ferry to get to Gran Canaria, but no one told us when they were coming to collect us, we only found out from a couple we met at breakfast. I’m, sure other people will have missed the coach.
“It took us 36 hours to get to our hotel, so we only had two full days of the holiday, it was just a nightmare.
“We both work hard and we haven’t been together that long so we’d been really looking forward to it. Ryanair has made me rethink my plans to use them again.
The Spanish weather services had issued a red warning for Gran Canaria on September 25th, which led to more than 140 cancellations in the Canaries.
In a statement previously released by Ryanair about the flight in question, a spokesperson said: “This flight from Newcastle to Gran Canaria (25 Sept) diverted to Lanzarote due to bad weather conditions which were entirely beyond Ryanair’s control.
“Affected passengers were notified and provided with overnight accommodation before being transported to Gran Canaria (26 Sept) when weather conditions improved the following day.
“We sincerely apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused as a result of these weather disruptions.”
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