A Scots mum who ended up stranded in Albania after Ryanair flight chaos saw her route home axed said she fell violently sick after “running out of medication.”
Amelia Weir, was one of hundreds of passengers who ended up trapped in Tirana after their Friday morning flight at 10.55am to Edinburgh Airport, was delayed until 9.50pm on Saturday.
The delay left passengers, including Amelia, facing a gruelling 35 hour wait before they could finally get home.
The 32-year-old parent from East Kilbride, suffered a hellish experience, after a trip with pals turned into a nightmare.
Amelia who has a hiatus hernia ran out of essential medication and ended up lying on an airport bench with “cold sweats” as she became so unwell so feared she wouldn’t be able to fly, Edinburgh Live reports.
Amelia said: “It was an absolute shambles. No one knew what was going on. We were waiting for around 16 hours in the airport on Friday. The internet wasn’t good in the airport and I struggled to contact anyone back home to tell them what was happening.
“I was meant to be back by Friday afternoon, but we were still stuck at the airport. I had my wee boy crying down the phone to me, I had missed his football tournament.
“There was no communication, or Ryanair staff at the airport but the flight times kept changing. We were sitting around for 16 hours before we were taken to hotels. Some went to really nice resorts, and then others went to ****holes. I went to the rubbish one with no hot water. The staff at the hotel were really great but I don’t know if they were doing work there or something but there were holes in the floor.”
On Saturday (October 5), a coach picked up the frustrated travellers and brought them back to the airport before a flight had been confirmed.
Amelia added: “I have a hiatus hernia and I’m on the waiting list for surgery but by Saturday I had run out of medication. I was violently sick, I was lying on one of the benches and had cold sweats. I was so unwell. Luckily, one of the other passengers went around the whole airport and found me some tablets but while were were waiting the staff said that I might not be able to fly if I was so sick.
“I said, that isn’t an option. I need to get home. I had already lost two jobs and my boy needed me. I needed to get back to my son.”
Amelia who runs a cleaning service also lost out on three jobs – amounting her to being £150 out of pocket.
“That’s a lot of money,” she added, “I’ve just bought my own house too, so every little helps. Back in Tirana, I had probably spent around £200 just on extra days we were there on food and stuff. Ryanair gave us an €8 voucher, but that doesn’t stretch far at an airport, it’s not adequate.”
The 32-year-old vowed to never fly with Ryanair as she blasted the airline over the ‘shambolic’ experience. She was forced to fork out £100 to get a taxi home and didn’t get through the door until 4am on Sunday morning.
She added: “I’m never flying with Ryanair again. I’ve got another holiday with my son next week with easyJet but honestly, I don’t even want to set foot in an airport again right now. I’ve travelled and flown since I was a baby but I’ve never experienced anything like that before. It was horrendous.”
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from Tirana to Edinburgh (October 4 was delayed overnight due to a technical issue with the aircraft. Passengers were notified and provided with overnight accommodation, while engineers serviced the aircraft, which took longer than initially expected resulting in passengers receiving a number of estimated departure time updates as we endeavoured to keep them informed.
“To minimise disruption to passengers, we arranged for a replacement aircraft from Edinburgh to operate this flight, which departed the following day (October 5) with 144 passengers onboard.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of this unavoidable tech delay.”
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