Ryanair plane takes off from France without all passengers due to EES hold-ups
Pilot left 24 passengers behind to avoid missing allocated departure slot
Aircraft waited for 42 minutes after scheduled take off before leaving passengers at Tours Val de Loire airport
Snapshot freddy/Shutterstock
A Ryanair flight from Tours (Indre-et-Loire) to Marrakesh (Morocco) took off without all passengers after airport delays prevented boarding on time.
The aircraft was scheduled to leave Tours at 12:15 on March 11, however flight trackers show it left 42 minutes later, at 12:57.
A total of 24 passengers had their luggage removed from the plane before it departed without them.
“The pilot of this flight had an allocated slot to take off. If he missed it, he would not know when he would be able to get a new one to fly. So, he is within his rights to close the doors of his aircraft and take his slot,” Louis Chaumont, the director of Tours Val de Loire airport, told local media ICI Touraine.
Mr Chaumont explained the boarding delay was linked to an unannounced gendarmerie inspection of the airport, as well as increased checks due to EES requirements.
Border police must register non-EU visitors entering and leaving the Schengen area. Passengers on the Tours-Marrakesh flight were concerned by the biometric checks which can take “three to four minutes per passenger,” said Mr Chaumont.
During the EES rollout, inspections have been capped. By March 10 (150 days since the beginning of the phased start) all French borders were meant to be using EES, with at least 50% of relevant travellers crossing French borders registered in the system.
France aims to reach full operation by the end of this month, however problems with registration kiosks and tablets raise doubts over meeting deadlines.
The impacted Ryanair passengers are encouraged to keep copies of all payment receipts and supporting documents.
Staff at Tours airport are currently analysing the situation to “determine who is responsible” with each case being examined individually, said Mr Chaumont.
“Passengers have our contact details, and we will not leave them without a response,” he added.
Travellers may want to plan ahead for journeys, especially via France’s regional airports where EES queues could get considerably longer from April onwards.
