No one will admit fault for missed flight fiasco

I, my husband and around 12 fellow passengers missed the 1.30pm Ryanair flight from Porto to Belfast on 2 August after being unavoidably delayed in the passport queue at the flight gate. We checked our bags at 11.30am and were in the queue for passport control as soon as the gate was announced (it is not possible to join the queue before this time).

- By Jill Insley

We spent over an hour in the queue. We asked if we could move to the front when it became clear that our flight would be closing, but were told this was not possible. No Ryanair rep came to look for the passengers who had not arrived for their flight. No announcement was made calling us. We were completely abandoned and powerless to obtain help. We arrived at the gate about 10 minutes after it closed and could see the plane outside. Ryanair staff would not take responsibility for the missed departure or provide us with paperwork confirming what had happened, although they did fill in formal paperwork recording the event.

We were escorted out of the airside space to collect our bags and advised to find our own way to fly home at our own expense. Ryanair had no flights from Porto to Belfast until four days later. No other airline flies from Porto to Belfast. My husband and I spent around £800 to book flights to Belfast via Bristol, including an overnight stay in a Bristol airport hotel. The total journey time was 23 hours.