Ryanair has added an extra flight from Lisbon to Dublin on Sunday as a result.
Approximately 140 passengers were left stranded at Lisbon Airport on Saturday morning after a strike by security staff led to the cancellation of a Ryanair flight to Dublin.
The flight, which had been due to depart at 10am on Saturday, eventually departed with no passengers on board after chaotic scenes due to a 24-hour strike by security staff at Lisbon Airport.
One passenger who had been due to board the flight, Bryan Kirwan, told JOE that he arrived at Lisbon Airport at 8am to be greeted by an “enormous” queue at the Ryanair check-in desk.
After eventually getting through security scanners manned by just two staff members, Bryan and a number of passengers at the vacant boarding gate were directed to a “chaotic” ticket desk, where he said there was “about 500 angry patrons queued outside the terminal with no movement and no information provided”.
With Skyscanner saying that there was no flight back to Dublin until Wednesday and with no further information available at that point, Bryan and his girlfriend booked flights to Dublin with Aer Lingus from Faro on Monday. Bryan said that many fellow passengers took similar measures.
Bryan subsequently received correspondence from Ryanair, who have added an extra flight to Dublin at 00:20 on Sunday morning.
Contacted by JOE for comment, a Ryanair spokesperson provided the following response: “Due to a strike by security staff at Lisbon airport today (27 Aug), we regret that passengers were unable to board their flight to Dublin.
“Ryanair has now added an extra flight from Lisbon to Dublin tonight and expects all customers delayed by today’s security strike to return on it.
“We sincerely apologise for this disruption, which is entirely beyond our control, and further information will be posted on the Ryanair.com website when available.”
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