AAR to STN Cancelled & Abandoned by Ryanair

Airline:  Ryanair

Flight #: FR713

Route:    AAR-STN

Class:    Economy

Seat:     11A

Date:     Monday 28^th August 2023

Having had an enjoyable 24 hours in the city of Aarhus (read about that here), I had caught a very busy 925X bus back to the airport in plenty of time to catch my flight home. The buses are timed for specific flights, getting you to the airport around 90 minutes before the flight’s departure, but I had managed to get the bus before so was at the airport around 2 hours before we were due to take off back to Stansted.

With both a Ryanair and an SAS flight departing within 30 minutes of each other, I was expecting the airport to be quite busy as this would be one of its busiest periods. However, I was pleasantly surprised how calm the terminal was, and how efficient security was, with it taking just five minutes from me getting off the bus to passing through duty free into the departure lounge.

The departure lounge is thankfully in the new terminal building along with gates 1-3 as opposed to the temporary tents attached with serve gates 4-7 the other side of passport control. Given the much nicer environment, I decided to stay in the main terminal until the last minute and then head through passport control, backed up by passport control still being closed when I arrived.

The departure lounge was very nice and extremely comfortable as in addition to the usual airport benches, there were also sofas and armchairs dotted around. On the ground floor, in addition to the gate area and seating, there was a large duty-free shop and a children’s play area, whilst upstairs there was more seating and a restaurant. Expecting an hour or so wait before heading through to the gate, I settled down to watch some Netflix close to the large windows to keep an eye on the aircraft movements.

With the gate ‘advertised’ as closing 40 minutes before departure on my boarding card, when it reached an hour before departure and it still hadn’t been announced, I suspected there’d be a delay to the flight, although nothing had been announced. The first information I got was Google Flights five minutes later when it told me that my flight had been delayed by three hours.

Taking the delay on the chin, I had plenty of phone and headphone battery along with chargers for both, so would at least be entertained whilst waiting out the delay. Unfortunately, not long after I got another notification advising the flight was cancelled and this was soon backed up by airport staff appearing with EU261 compensation leaflets. It turns out my journey home coincided with the widespread loss of ATC services in the UK, causing aviation chaos on the August Bank Holiday Monday.

Delays and cancellations can happen and whilst they are frustrating usually they are a slight inconvenience and you arrive with a delay. It all comes down to how the airline’s react and handle them. They can handle the delays well like Lufthansa did when I flew to Kiev in 2019, having rebooked my connection before I’d even landed on the first flight (read about those here & here), or they can handle it poorly. Ryanair handled it poorly.

As with most of their ‘outstations’ Ryanair had none of their own staff at Aarhus, and so the contracted airport staff unfortunately had to deal with 180 or so people that now couldn’t get back to Stansted. EU261 compensation requires airlines to either provide a refund or re-routing via themselves or competitors. Ryanair decided to ignore the ‘or competitors’ bit and offered me either a refund or a seat on their flight in four days’ time after I had made contact via the online chat. Even when I raised they should provide alternative routing if they couldn’t get me home themselves, they said this was something they couldn’t help with.

If there is an extended delay before providing an alternative flight or route, the airline is also supposed to provide hotel accommodation and refreshments etc. I almost joined the queue for the airport information desk but with people having just been seen saying they were unable to help in any way, I decided not to waste more time. With time slipping away and the ATC issue still causing plenty of problems, reaching the UK on the Monday soon became impossible. After contact with mission control (Beth) in the UK, the decision was made for me to find a hotel for the night and book myself with SAS to get back to the UK the following day. With everyone trying to do the same, I had a three-flight itinerary via Copenhagen and Stockholm to get home.

So, not the normal flight review, although there are three bonus reviews of my SAS flights coming up. As I mentioned above, whilst delays and cancellations can happen and, to be honest, I’m surprised I’ve not been affected more on my travels, how the airlines handle them is the important thing. Ryanair in this instance were atrocious and, whilst I’m sure they won’t notice, I’ll be taking my money to Wizz Air, Easyjet or another airline for my next few trips.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     0*

Food               0*

Service             0*

Punctuality         0*

Overall Rating      0/25 (read about my rating system here!)