Ryanair and the WWII bomb at Pisa Airport

uglytwin

I was wondering if anyone can help with what I do next?

Having been on holiday in Italy (1 hour South of Pisa) I, wife and 19 month old daughter arrived at Pisa Airport at 6pm on Thursday 26th May 2011 to board the flight to Edinburgh (flight number FR2752).

The flight was due to depart at 9.15pm and having checked in bags and gone through security we arrived to sit down outside Gate 21. An Italian security/police officer however turned up and spoke in Italian. Through murmurings and overhearing others who could understand Italian it transpired that the airport was now closed due to a bomb. Of course my wife was slightly alarmed by this and we returned to check-in desk immediately to ascertain specific details.

On the way to check in desk, I was pointed to a monitor which stated in English tht the airport was closed due to finding an ancient world war 2 bomb at the end of the runway.

I was then directed to ticket desk at Pisa airport having found out that no Ryanair staff were on site.

The ticket desk staff operator offered me options of traveling on Saturday to Edinburgh (next available flight) or to travel to Rome in the morning (3 hours train ride) for flight at 10.10am or to fly to London in the morning but I would have to bear costs to get to Edinburgh. Following this we chose the Saturday flight to Edinburgh (flight number FR2752). We also subsequently retrieved our bags.

It was now 10pm and I had to find accommodation for my family. I immediately went to local information board and called approximately 10 hotels ranging from 5* to 1*). There was no accommodation to be found anywhere and specifically none with a cot. At that moment an announcement was made that those in the airport that were supposed to fly to Edinburgh could fly on a newly scheduled flight to Edinburgh from Genoa (1 hour bus ride away).

We immediately proceeded to check-in desk and had our boarding passes "stamped/authorised" to allow us to travel on the newly scheduled flight. We proceeded along with another 100 passengers approximately outside to the bus stand to wait on the buses. At 10.30pm the buses arrived whereby "someone" came out of the bus and told us that the flight from Genoa was not going to happen after all as they could not fly out of hours.

I then returned to the airport back to the ticket desk. By now the queue was ridiculous as all other passengers from all the other flights were waiting to change flights. We then waited in queue to change back our tickets to the Saturday flight. Was also given a piece of paper with Ryanair contact details.

Following this I went back to try and acquire accommodation. Another 15 phonecalls all on my UK mobile where finally I found a single bed for one night. The thought was that my wife and child could sleep there and I would either sleep on floor or return to airport.

When we arrived at the hotel in the early hours the owner took pity and found us a room with a double bed and so all 3 of us slept in same bed on Thursday and Friday nights.

The accommodation cost 180 euros (have receipt);
Mobile calls: Approximately 20 euros (no bill as yet)
The taxi cost 20 euros (no receipt)
Breakfast was included with accommodation
Lunch on Friday cost 45 euros (no receipt)
Dinner on Friday cost 29.90 euros (have receipt)
Lunch on Saturday cost 20 euros (no receipt)

To top this off I was supposed to work on the Friday but obviously had to take a day off.

I believe Ryanair (although I haven't asked) do not need to pay any compensation as they couldn't have done anything about this?

Please does someone know if I am entitled to compensation and what I should do next?

Thank you

Teahfc

First port of call would be check my travel insurance,I very much doubt if you have no receipts you will have any claim to the taxi and 2 meals you have had.
We all know Ryanair duck and dive when it comes to problems sadly goes with the territory. I cannot answer the question but wish you luck in recovery of the funds spent.

apt

Ryanair is legally obliged by EU travel regulations to pay for your subsistence costs, but you will need receipts and probably to get past some stonewalling. You won't be compensated for having to take time off. Most travel insurance only pays a limited amount for delay e.g. £20 per 24 hours.

ZooSAR

I was on Ryanair FR0584 on Friday morning (27/5/11) from Stansted to Pisa. All was going to plan until midway through the flight we were informed by the pilot that Pisa airport had been closed until 20.00 that day, due to a security alert.

An interesting sequence of events followed.....we were told the plane was diverting to Genoa and a coach would be provided to take us to Pisa. Two (yes TWO) aborted attempts to land at Genoa later, due to too much wind and low cloud (so we were told), we were off to Bologna. About 30 minutes later the pilot tells us that Pisa had re-opened and we would be diverting back to our original destination!

What should have been a 2 hour flight turned into a 3 1/2 hour adventure in the air.

Reading this post it makes me think that surely Ryanair would have known about the Pisa airport closure, before we took off, if the airport had been shut on Thursday?!

Just a quick note to finish on - when we recounted the story to the concierge at the hotel, their reply was to say this happens all the time, and the story about the 'bomb' was probably just a cover for the Italians downing tools and staging one of their impromptu strikes

budgetflyer

Ryanair are quite specific about what you are entitled to and acknowledge EU reg 261 on their website
http://www.ryanair.com/doc/faqs/eu261-en.pdf

Despite now taking a 2 £/Euro levy to cover the care of passengers, generally the handling agents will shrug their shoulders and turn you away, leaving you to fend for yourself.

Specifically this section outlines their obligations.

3. RIGHT TO CARE
If you are involuntarily denied boarding or if your flight is cancelled or delayed by more than 2 hours,
we will offer you, free of charge:
a) meals and refreshment vouchers in reasonable relation to the waiting time, as long as it will
not further delay the departure of the aircraft
b) two telephone calls, telex or fax messages or e-mails;
c) hotel accommodation in cases where a stay of one or more nights becomes necessary, or
where a stay additional to that intended by you becomes necessary;
d) transport between the airport and place of accommodation (hotel or other).
If your flight is delayed as specified under ‘Flight Delays’ above or your elect to be re-routed to your
final destination at the earliest opportunity as a result of a flight cancellation, we will offer you items
(a) and (b) above. If the new time of departure is reasonably expected as a result of the delay or your
being re-routed following a cancellation to at least the day after the original time of departure, we will
also offer you items (c) and (d) above. Where it is not feasible for Ryanair to arrange the care set out
above, Ryanair will reimburse you for reasonable receipted expenses upon application to: Ryanair
Compensation Department, Dublin Airport, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

also read
http://www.ryanair.com/en/questions/what-happens-if-my-flight-is-cancelled-by-ryanair

And you can download a claim form at

http://schchng.ryanair.com/refweb.asp