British-based budget carrier Ryanair is playing catch-up today after a “major systems failure” grounded planes across Europe on Saturday—some for up to 12 hours.
Hundreds of passengers were prevented from checking in for their flights and could not download boarding passes on their smartphones.
MORE Airlines & Airports
Others said their boarding passes completely disappeared from their smartphones, and they were forced to pay to check in at the airport—55 euros or just over $61 USD.
Checking in at the airport is just one of the many things Ryanair charges a fee for.
Ryanair issued a statement on Saturday night to London’s Daily MailOnline, saying: “This morning we suffered a system outage which caused some short delays at airport check-in and boarding. The system has been restored and flights are operating as normal. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
The airplanes themselves were not affected, although many flights were delayed just waiting for passengers to check in. When it became inevitable, many flights took off without a full complement of passengers who were still waiting to check in and get a boarding pass.
In fact, some large groups traveling together ended up being split up, according to the Daily Mail.
Hundreds took to social media to express their dismay, and it just showed how widespread the outage really was with dispatches from Ireland, Rome, Mallorca, Malaga and London’s Gatwick and Stansted airports.
