Couple's Ryanair flight landed in Lanzarote instead of Gran Canaria

Martyn Gray, 37, and Emma Gatenby, 38, had been looking forward to their four-day holiday in Gran Canaria, but were left furious when it took them an extra 36 hours to get to their hotel after their plane was diverted to another island more than 130 miles away.

The couple say they took off on Sunday September 25, and were diverted to Lanzarote due to a storm in Gran Canaria after circling for more than an hour.

But the holiday took an even more stressful turn as Martyn says Ryanair failed to communicate with passengers about what was happening, and they were forced to take two ferry trips, with a stop off in Fuerteventura, before they eventually arrived at their Gran Canaria hotel.

Martyn and Emma were stuck queueing up for their ferry. Picture: NORTHERN ECHO (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

Martyn, a Darlington-based mechanic and garage owner, told The Northern Echo: “It was so stressful, and no one was telling us anything – it put a real dampener on the whole holiday.

“We were really looking forward to going and we were only meant to be there for four days, so it took nearly half our holiday to get to the hotel.

“We got diverted to Lanzarote and the cabin crew told us to get our bags as normal. Everyone was trying to get to the Ryanair desk to ask what was going on but they couldn’t tell us. It was just chaos, there were older couples and a lady with a baby there too."

Martin says they eventually were told to board coaches to the ferry terminal where they were left outside in the rain for more than an hour.

They were eventually loaded onto a ferry but say RyanAir failed to communicate with them. Picture: NORTHERN ECHO (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

The mechanic said: “We eventually got put on some coaches to get a ferry but no one there knew we were coming so they didn’t know whether we had to pay or not.

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"We were all waiting around outside in the rain for more than an hour before we eventually got on the ferry and went to Fuerteventura.

"We’ve pretty much done a tour of all the Canary Islands!”

Martyn said there were no Ryanair staff on the ground to help them or tell them where to go, and they had to rely on fellow passengers to work out what was happening.

He added: “They put us up in a hotel for the night before we had to get another ferry to get to Gran Canaria, but no one told us when they were coming to collect us, we only found out from a couple we met at breakfast. I’m, sure other people will have missed the coach.

Martyn and Emma were waiting around outside the hotel. Picture: NORTHERN ECHO (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

“It took us 36 hours to get to our hotel, so we only had two full days of the holiday, it was just a nightmare.

“We both work hard and we haven’t been together that long so we’d been really looking forward to it. It puts me off ever using Ryanair again - the way they handled it all was a shambles.

The Spanish weather agencies had issued a red weather alert for Gran Canaria on September 25 which caused more than 140 flights to be cancelled across the Canaries.

In a statement previously released by Ryanair about the flight in question, a spokesperson said: "This flight from Newcastle to Gran Canaria (25 Sept) diverted to Lanzarote due to bad weather conditions which were entirely beyond Ryanair’s control.

“Affected passengers were notified and provided with overnight accommodation before being transported to Gran Canaria (26 Sept) when weather conditions improved the following day.

"We sincerely apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused as a result of these weather disruptions."

The Northern Echo contacted Ryanair to ask whether they would provide a refund for passengers but they did not reply to our request before our deadline.