Images of uniformed men and women – apparently asleep on the floor – are being circulated today in a story that claims Ryanair flight crew were left high and dry after post-tropical storm Leslie saw planes diverted from landing in Portugal and directed instead to Malaga, in Spain.
Ryanair have refuted the allegation, saying the photographs were staged. But the company agreed that crews were not put up in hotels, as they “were all full”.
Said a source for the low-cost passenger carrier, 24 flight crew (eight pilots and 16 cabin staff) “spent a brief period in the staffroom before being put in a VIP lounge, returning to Porto the following day, (none of them were on duty for the return to Porto)”.
SNPVAC, the national syndicate for cabin crew, condemned the situation as “lamentable and inadmissible that in the 21st century a company can operate without any kind of respect for its staff and for the passengers that were also left to their own devices at Malaga airport in a sector that is strongly regulated by national and European authorities”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
