The budget flight from Athens to Luton left dozens stranded at the airport in sweltering temperatures
Ryanair passengers have been left stranded in Greece after their flight back to the UK departed without them.
The flight, from Athens to London Luton, took off without between 20 and 50 passengers on board.
Budget airline Ryanair pointed the finger at border delays, while the airport claimed it had been experiencing congestion linked to “additional processing requirements”. One holidaymaker told the BBC there had been a “mega queue” of several hundred people at both security and passport control amid sweltering temperatures.
“These poor people were pleading with the Ryanair staff to let them through – one guy was crying, another guy looked like he was about to explode,” they said. Airport authorities intervened “to maintain orderly operations” after “a number of passengers expressed their dissatisfaction”, officials confirmed.
A spokesperson stated there had been “periods of congestion at passport control in the departures area due to high passenger volumes and the additional processing requirements associated with travel to non-Schengen destinations”.
They went on to say: “As is currently the case at many European airports, passenger flows on certain routes may experience increased processing times as new border-control procedures continue to be implemented and refined.”, reports Birmingham Live.
A further passenger took to Twitter to blast Ryanair, saying it was “utterly disgraceful you left my daughter (and half your passengers) at the gate in Athens today”. Ryanair said in a statement that “a number of passengers” did not board in time “due to delays caused by border control at Athens airport”.
It added: “All passengers that were at the boarding gate when this flight from Athens to London Luton boarded, travelled without incident.”
Greece has abandoned its pledge to exempt British travellers from the European Union’s new biometric border checks. Brits will now undergo the same Entry/Exit System (EES) registration as every other non-EU visitor this summer.
The Greek Foreign Ministry confirmed the U-turn, stating that it had no information that “specific nationalities are temporarily exempt from the relevant procedure.”
The decision impacts more than just UK passport holders. Any non-EU traveller passing through the biometric scanners will be subjected to the checks.
Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni said that the government did not want visitors “burdened” by bureaucracy.
She promised that Brits would be “fast-tracked” through the system, describing entry and exit as taking “a minute or so.”