Many Ryanair passengers diverted from Charleroi airport to Ostend and deprived of assistance

Sunday 12th January 2025 06:28 PM

RYANAIR PASSENGERS’ MISAVENTURE

Published on Monday January 13, 2025 at 00:11 | Estimated reading time: 3 min.

Many Ryanair passengers diverted from Charleroi to Ostend and deprived of assistance. DR

Many passengers due to land at Charleroi airport were diverted on Saturday January 11, 2025 to other airports in the country. Among them, many Ryanair passengers from Agadir including table tennis player Jean-Michel Saive, president of the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (COIB) and one of the Taloche brothers. Several passengers criticize the Irish low-cost airline for not having warned them in time, because families saw their loved ones arrive in Charleroi before learning that the flights had been diverted to other airports. Contacted by us, the spokesperson for Charleroi airport indicates that around fifteen flights were diverted to Belgian (Brussels, Ostend) and Luxembourg airports due to weather conditions. She assures that bus shuttles have been organized by the airlines to bring passengers back to Charleroi.

Funny mishap for several passengers returning from vacation and who were supposed to land at Charleroi airport. Saturday January 11, 2025, several of them alerted us to the unpleasant surprise that the airline, Ryanair, had in store for them. “ Flights to Charleroi are once again diverted to Ostend today (Saturday, editor’s note), because they cannot land given the weather conditions. Ryanair did not warn passengers about takeoff, even though they knew it “, a family returning from Agadir told us at the end of the day on Saturday.

Lack of assistance for passengers

The mother denounces the lack of assistance upon their arrival at Ostend airport. “ Elderly people and children were among the passengers and they were not given anything to quench their thirst, no water, or anything else. “, she laments.

Ryanair did not warn passengers about takeoff, even though they knew it.

The fact of not having anticipated the situation meant that relatives of the families arrived at Charleroi airport to pick them up before learning that the flights had been diverted. To avoid keeping their loved ones waiting after flight hours, they traveled from Ostend to pick them up.

Among the passengers were the table tennis player Jean-Michel Saive, today president of the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (COIB) and one of the members of the Taloche Brothers duo who were also returning from the Moroccan seaside resort, located on the southern Atlantic coast of the Cherifian kingdom.

Around fifteen flights diverted to other airports

Contacted by us, the spokesperson for Brussels South Charleroi Airport (BSCA), the management company of Carolo airport, confirmed the situation. “ It was the pilots and the airline who decided to divert the planes to another airport due to weather conditions. We are talking about around fifteen flights and at different airports (Brussels, Ostend, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, etc.). It’s decided at the moment or almost, so difficult to predict “, Nathalie Perard, BSCA’s communications manager, told us.

It was the pilots and the airline who decided to divert the planes to another airport due to weather conditions.

She specifies that the pilots’ decision to land at other airports meets a security objective. “ It is safety that takes precedence and this is why the pilots preferred to land elsewhere », she said, specifying that bus shuttles were organized by the airlines to bring passengers back to Charleroi. Furthermore, certain flights departing from Charleroi were canceled for reasons linked to bad weather.

Ryanair was not the only company whose flights were diverted to other airports. Wizzair flights were also affected. But the bus shuttles took time forcing some passengers to return home on their own.

Ph. Law.