“Four hours locked in a plane, without any information.” Boarding a Ryanair flight to Rome, several hundred passengers had a night to remember

Passengers on a Berlin-Rome flight had a long night on the plane and then at the airport only to get home the next day.

Stranded at Berlin airport due to Ryanair flight to Rome not taking off: Originally scheduled for 19:30 on Saturday 3 January, it was pushed back to 20:00, then 22:00 and finally canceled at midnight after four hours on board. “Without receiving any kind of assistance,” complain those on board, writes the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

That was the ordeal of 190 mostly Italian passengers, including children and the elderly, who spent the night at the German airport after the airline failed to find alternative hotel accommodation. It was only today, January 4, at 1pm that passengers were allowed to board a plane – also delayed as it had been rescheduled for 10am – with the hope that they would finally be able to depart.

One of the passengers, Simone, recounted the long night spent waiting for departure.

Captain's announcement: “Airport is closed”

“Yesterday it snowed in Berlin, but it wasn't a blizzard, so we managed to get to the airport,” says Simone, one of the Italian passengers who flew to Berlin with his wife and two small children. “We boarded the plane an hour late and were kept on board for four hours, with nothing to eat or drink and no information. After the wings were de-iced, the plane was listed for take-off and started taxiing, but at the last minute the captain announced that the airport was closed. From what I understand, this decision was not related to bad weather, but to a federal law that prohibits night flights between 23:00 and 05:00.

Night in the airport

“At first,” continues Simone, “Ryanair said they would provide us with hotel accommodation. Then in another message they informed us that they couldn't find any rooms and that we would have to find reasonably priced accommodation ourselves and then apply for a refund. But at two in the morning, along with other passengers in the same situation, we had no chance of finding a hotel.” Simone and his family, along with many others, resigned themselves to spending the night at the airport.

Another delay

The airline also announced that the flight was rescheduled for 10am. But this did not happen: “We were told there would be another delay until noon due to difficulties in finding a crew. When we protested, they told us to contact the embassy and only then did boarding begin.” Finally, the passengers arrived in Rome, almost a day late.