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8th April 2022
02:05pm BST
Mallia, an estate agent from Fulham, said:
"An hour into our flight, Jessy said he thought he heard a flight attendant say Madrid, but we thought he had dreamed it.
"But after that we started realising all the flight attendants were speaking Spanish."
They asked flight attendants who then confirmed they were heading to the Spanish capital.
"We were baffled and so were the flight attendants," Mallia said.
The couple were completely confused as to how staff failed to notice they were boarding the wrong flight – despite checking their tickets, which clearly stated London as the destination.
"We had our boarding passes scanned three times before boarding – they assumed the passes were wrong, but they weren't.
"It's not like getting the wrong bus – we literally ended up in a different country!"
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Image via South West News Service[/caption]
The pair quickly alerted Ryanair staff as soon as they touched down at Madrid. Luckily, they were put on another flight and arrived back in London after a mega detour.
What made the flight mix-up even funnier is that Mallia said she swore she saw 'Madrid' on the neighbouring gate to theirs before boarding the return from France.
She recalled making a joke to her partner that they should continue their holiday and go to Spain instead of returning to London. Little did they know, this would actually end up being the case.
Thankfully, the pair made it back to Fulham - only five hours later than planned.
The couple claim they have been unable to get in touch with Ryanair since the incident - and are still perplexed by how it happened.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said:
"Mr Jezequel and Ms Mallia boarded their flight from Marseille to London Stansted through the correct gate.
"However, these passengers then failed to follow the allocated route to the aircraft departing for London Stansted, crossed an unauthorised area and wrongly boarded a flight departing to Madrid.
"Both passengers were able to occupy the same seats they had booked for their original flight, as this flight was not fully booked, thus not alerting them to their error at this time.
"An announcement advising passengers of their final destination and estimated time of arrival is made before every flight departure – which should have alerted Mr Jezequel and Ms Mallia that they were on the wrong aircraft," the spokesperson continued.
"Upon arriving at Madrid Airport, these passengers then realised their error and Ryanair staff were notified of these misrouted passengers.
Mr Jezequel and Ms Mallia were accommodated on a flight from Madrid to London Stansted later that day.
"It is each passenger’s responsibility to ensure they board the correct aircraft."Explore more on these topics:
