Ryanair cancels a flight from Corsica and … lets its passengers alone. UPDATE: charter flight provided

180 passengers had a very bad surprise on Monday 24 July afternoon. Their flight FR4567 back to Brussels South Charleroi (CRL) from Figari, Corsica (FSC) was cancelled. The incoming flight FR4566 Charleroi-Figari had been diverted to Bastia (BIA) because of a forest fire. And instead of finding an alternative for the passengers, Ryanair left them alone to find a solution.

Corsica is currently ravaged by forest fires and many tourists want to leave the island. But violent winds make the operation complicated for aeroplanes. Some airlines are even forced to cancel some of their flights.

This is the case of Ryanair, which first delayed and finally cancelled one of its flights (FR4567) departing from the airport of Figari for Brussels South.

“The worry is that the company does not seem to want to charter a new aircraft, so we have to manage to find seats ourselves … but for 180 people, it’s impossible!”, testifies passenger Luca to RTL television channel.

Ryanair agreed to reimburse the travellers’ tickets. But the problem is that return tickets are much more expensive now in the high season than when the passengers bought them a few months ago. As a result, these tourists are worried, rightly so.

What is strange in this case is that the flight FR4567 was actually operated with a delay of 3 hours and 30 minutes (dep. FSC 18:57 instead of 15:30, arr. CRL 21:00 instead of 17:35). Indeed, Ryanair had repositioned its brand new Boeing 737-800 reg. EI-FZD from Bastia to Figari (flight FR45, dep. 16:27, arr. 17:01).

Did FR4567 then fly from Figari to Charleroi without passengers? If so, why were the passengers left stranded? Luchtzak.be tried to contact Ryanair but did not receive an answer.

Update:

180 Belgians stranded in Corsica after the cancellation of their flight: Ryanair finally chartered a flight this Tuesday

As mentioned above, Luca testified on RTL television: “Our Ryanair flight was scheduled at 3:30 pm It was postponed several times and finally cancelled because of wind, but other planes took off and landed … but hey, the worry is that the company does not seem to want to charter a new aircraft, so we have to manage to find places ourselves … but to 180 people, it’s impossible! “, he lamented.

Luca is shocked by the attitude of Ryanair, as are the numerous Belgians present. “We find ourselves on an island, without any other possibility of transport; we have to search ourselves for flights to Belgium, we look for possibilities, but we cannot find any. Seats are overpriced, there are sometimes intermediate stops and the only available flights are several days later! The airline agrees to refund us the cancelled airline tickets, but it will cost us a lot more to find new ones … “, he explained late yesterday.

Finally, shortly after 22:00, Ryanair informed these travellers that “a plane would be chartered tomorrow (read this Tuesday),” explained Luca. The company thus respected the rights of its customers. Among these, travellers whose flight has been cancelled may request to be re-routed on the next flight planned by the company. Meanwhile, drinks, food, and a hotel room must be provided.

However, at 18:30 on 25 July, the Luchtzak.be team did not yet find any trace of such flight on flightradar24.com.

Update 26 July:

Ryanair statement:

“This flight from Figari to Brussels Charleroi (24 Jul) was regrettably cancelled after the inbound aircraft was unable to land at Figari due to strong winds. Affected customers were provided with refreshment vouchers and overnight hotel accommodation and boarded a replacement flight which departed to Brussels the following day. Ryanair sincerely apologised to all customers affected by this cancellation.”