Tourists grounded after airport grinds to a halt
HOLIDAYMAKERS STRANDED IN LISBON DESCRIBE SCENES INSIDE THEIR TERMINAL AS A ‘NIGHTMARE’
MANCHESTER holidaymakers were among thousands of people to face chaos in Portugal after flights were grounded at a major international airport.
A fuel pump fault caused ‘absolute carnage’ and a ‘nightmare’ at Lisbon airport on Wednesday, according to travellers.
Passengers were seen asleep on the floor of the terminal after the failure struck, leaving them unable to get home.
One traveller told the M.E.N., they queued for nearly ten hours, adding: “At least two people received medical treatment for a panic attack. The whole experience was a nightmare.”
Ryanair was among the airlines affected, along with the Portuguese national carrier TAP, which was warning customers that delays would run into Thursday.
Ella Sykes, 27, from Leeds, said the scene in the terminal was ‘absolute carnage’ when she and a friend arrived at the airport at 2pm for a 5.30pm Ryanair flight to Manchester after a short break in Lisbon.
Speaking to the Press Association on Thursday morning, she said: “We have been here all night.
“It’s 17 hours now and we still haven’t had any information from Ryanair. We have given up on the queues. We’ve booked a flight from Faro tomorrow morning. We are exhausted and we’ve had to fork out for accommodation overnight as well. And I was meant to be at work this morning.”
She said the only information she had received about what was happening had come from the media, adding: “The airport was absolute carnage. There were far too many people in the departure lounge so they stopped letting people in.”
Ryanair have since apologised to customers for the disruption.
Other travellers took to social media to vent their frustration.
Priyank Lakhia, from London, said: “It’s a mess at Lisbon Airport, flights cancelled and barely any staff on ground. Wife still waiting for updates.”
Jonathan Millar, also from London, said on Wednesday night: “Lisbon airport... what a mess. No fuel, no flights. Tracker boards haven’t been updated since 2pm. Utter chaos.”
On its Facebook page, the airport said there had been problems with the supply of fuel to aircraft. A Ryanair spokesman said: “Due to a fuelling system outage at Lisbon Airport last night (10 May), we regret that we were forced to cancel a number of flights to/from Lisbon.
“All affected customers were provided with refreshment and accommodation vouchers, were contacted by email and SMS text message and advised of their options of a full refund, a free transfer onto the next available flight, or a free transfer onto an alternative flight route, in full compliance with EU261 legislation.
“Ryanair sincerely apologised to all customers affected by this disruption, which was entirely beyond our control.”