Couple's holiday from hell as Ryanair mix up sees flight land 1,500 away

A Welsh couple were left "distraught" after they were put on the wrong Ryanair flight and ended up in Lithuania, 1,500 miles away from their intended destination.

Andrew and Victoria Gore from Mountain Ash, Wales, were travelling from Bristol Airport to the Costa Brava for Andrew's 47th birthday and meant to land in Barcelona.

The rest of the party made it without a hitch, but the husband and wife found themselves in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas.

Andrew said: "We were told they were definitely on the flight and they said 'just relax', so we had a sleep as we'd been up early. When I woke up, it didn't look like Spain out the window, I turned my phone on and it said 'Welcome to Lithuania'."

"Our flight number came up at the gate, and we were taken to the bottom of the plane steps, where the ground staff checked our boarding passes. When we got on the plane, the stewardess checked our passes again."

Bristol Airport said it is investigating the issue, and Ryaniar maintains their crew made multiple announcements informing passengers that the flight was to Kaunas.

Andrew recounted their "nightmare" experience at the airport, during which time none of the staff members noticed they had tickets for a different flight.

He said: "Our flight number came up at the gate, and we were taken to the bottom of the plane steps, where the ground staff checked our boarding passes. When we got on the plane, the stewardess checked our passes again."

When they arrived in Lithuania, they thought it was a wind-up and alerted Ryanair staff to the fact that their were in the wrong country before booking onto the next available flight to Barcelona.

However, this wasn't until the next morning and it departed from Riga - in an entirely different country. Ryanair booked a hotel and Uber to the airport for them.

They did all of this without any luggage - which didn't arrive in Barcelona for another two days. Andrew said: "It was surreal, and an experience I never want to have ever again, our family were worried sick and we were exhausted when we did eventually arrive.

"Even though they took us to the right place eventually, the experience had already happened, the damage had been done, and we can't forget those worrying moments."

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: "These passengers booked special assistance for this flight from Bristol to Barcelona, but Bristol Airport’s special assistance provider boarded them onto the wrong flight to Kaunas despite gate signage clearly displaying the flight’s destination.

"Before departing, crew make several announcements advising passengers of the flights destination. We sincerely apologise to these passengers for any inconvenience caused as a result of Bristol Airport’s special assistance provider’s error."

A spokesperson for Bristol Airport said: "We’ve worked with our business partners to investigate this incident. All customers have their travel documentation checked by the airline or their ground handling agent before boarding an aircraft.

"Since being informed of the issue, Bristol Airport has worked with our airline handling agent and special assistance provider to investigate the circumstances and to introduce improvements for the future.

We will contact the customer with information to direct their complaint to the correct business partner for resolution."