For the second time in less than a month, passengers on the Ryanair Madrid-Lanzarote flight that leaves Barajas at 9:40 p.m. spent the night in Gran Canaria. Tuesday night's flight left Madrid more than an hour and a half late. As a result, when the Irish company's aircraft was flying over Guacimeta, the airport had been closed for more than an hour, so it had to head to Gran Canaria. AENA has confirmed that Ryanair "knew" since the flight took off that it would not be able to land in Lanzarote.
"The extension of hours was not requested because they know perfectly well that the airport is open until 1 a.m.; and if they arrive much later, they have to go to another one," they emphasize. Despite this, the passengers were not informed until the aircraft was already flying over the islands. A relative of one of these travelers explained to La Voz that the crew then told them over the loudspeaker that it was "three minutes" past the airport's closing time and they would not be able to land, so they had to divert to Gran Canaria. Finally, the passengers arrived in Lanzarote this Wednesday at 7:30 in the morning, more than 8 hours later than planned. They did so after sleeping less than three hours in a hotel in Maspalomas, since they arrived around 2 in the morning at the Gran Canaria aerodrome and had to be back there at 5.
This is not the first time that Ryanair has diverted a flight on this same route. In fact, as La Voz already published, the same thing happened just two weeks ago, on June 14. On that occasion, the pilot of the plane assured the passengers that the delay was due to the air traffic controllers' strike, which had caused them to "accumulate delays on the line" throughout the day. However, the controllers' union denied this information to La Voz. Nor in that first 'diversion' had the passengers been warned that they might not arrive in time to land in Lanzarote; and many of them complained to the company as soon as they arrived at the Gran Canaria airport.
