A BRITISH family had their dream holiday to Spain ruined after Ryanair grounded their flight just minutes before take-off.
Simon Roffee was celebrating his 30th birthday with his wife Kellie, 35, and children Casey, 15, Ella, 12, Ryan, nine and Amelia-Rose, five.
But after spending months saving up for the £2,105 holiday in a four-star hotel in Mlallorca, they were told their flight was cancelled at the boarding gate.
Housewife Kellie told the Daily Star: “We normally go away for a weekend camping and we couldn’t do it because we were saving up for this holiday, we now won’t be going on holiday this year.
“We are waiting around the airport, the kids were really excited, we were sat in the VIP lounge and we heard this tannoy and they asking for everyone to go to gate four.”
She added: “We were really excited thinking we were going to get there and they locked the doors and they said nobody was going anywhere.
“It was 45 minutes before boarding, people were kicking off and they were really angry. I feel really bad like I have deprived my children of a holiday, the kids are devastated.”
The pair claim they have been promised a full refund from Ryanair as well as an undisclosed amount of compensation after the family forked out £495 for the flights and £1,500 to stay at the hotel.
They added that the airline refused to apologise after the flight was cancelled on Tuesday.
Ryanair has been forced to compensate thousands of passengers who were left without flights after an embarrassing staff blunder saw the company owing too many staff holidays.
Just one example of many more to come. If a simple exercise like coordinating holiday rosters is too tricky for Ryanair, it doesn’t bode well for safety maintenance.
It’s true that Ryanair dominates the cheap flight market, however who wants to use a carrier that just dumps you and your family before your flight? Wise up people and dump Ryanair.