Ryanair Flight FR6359 to Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL) was due to depart Krakow at 8:55am on Monday, but flight-tracking data showed it finally left at 12:40am on Tuesday, more than 15 hours late. Ryanair told passengers the delay was caused by “a minor technical issue with the aircraft” that required a replacement jet.
Passengers had originally been scheduled to land in Liverpool by 10:40am Monday. The replacement aircraft eventually touched down at around 2am Tuesday, meaning the two-hour flight ran more than 15 hours behind its original booking.
Marcin Tkaczyk, 47, one of the roughly 150 passengers affected, described sitting near the gate with no staff available to answer questions. He said onward information had stopped arriving for hours at a time, with the last Ryanair update landing four to five hours before departure, leaving the group to wait without a confirmed departure time.
Ryanair’s £3.38 Voucher That Could Buy You Almost Nothing
Ryanair issued each affected passenger one 17 Polish zloty food and drink voucher: The message sent by the budget carrier was quoted in The Liverpool Echo:
“Since your flight has been delayed, please enjoy a snack or beverage on us by presenting your boarding pass to the cashier at participating outlets. We have issued one 17.00 PLN (Polish zloty) voucher per boarding pass in your booking. Please note refreshment vouches cannot be redeemed onboard the aircraft.”
The airline’s message to passengers explained that the vouchers could be redeemed at participating outlets but not used onboard the replacement aircraft. The voucher was worth £3.38 at the time. However, Tkaczyk noted that a single coffee at Krakow Airport cost 21 zloty, more than the voucher itself.
According to The Traveler, the reported figure of £3.38 appeared to “relate to reimbursement for minimal refreshment or a residual balance after deductions, rather than the fixed-sum compensation many travelers associate with long delays in Europe“. For affected passengers, the publication further noted, the tiny reimbursement of the kind offered by Ryanair has “become a symbol of perceived indifference to customer experience“.
The compensation had come at a precarious time for the passengers – when they were waiting next to the gate, and quite possibly had no idea, about when their situation would have gotten better:
” We could leave, but then we’d have to go through the whole procedure again, and there is nothing around the airport so there’s really no point. “People are upset. There’s no one in person here to explain things to us. We were supposed to arrive in Liverpool at 10.40am. Now we don’t know. If we do depart at 00.30, it should be 3am.”
What Passengers Are Actually Owed Under EU Law
Under EU 261, the regulation governing European air passenger rights, airlines must provide meals and refreshments “in reasonable proportion” to the length of a delay once it passes two hours, well beyond a single low-value voucher. Passengers delayed five hours or more, as in this case, also have the right to abandon their journey and claim a full refund instead.
Compensation of up to €600 (£520) per passenger can additionally apply for delays of three hours or more at the final destination, though airlines are exempt if they can prove the disruption stemmed from extraordinary circumstances outside their control. A technical or mechanical fault, however, is generally not considered extraordinary under EU case law, meaning affected passengers on FR6359 are likely eligible to claim.
Krakow airport was one of seven Ryanair specifically flagged as unprepared for summer congestion when it urged the EU to postpone the bloc’s new Entry/Exit System after border queues stretched beyond five hours in July. Ryanair has separately taken a hard line with passengers delayed by those border queues, confirming it will depart flights on schedule regardless of passengers stuck in passport control.
Bottom Line
By the time the delayed passengers aboard Flight FR6359 finally boarded the replacement flight early Tuesday, frustration had largely given way to weary acceptance rather than any sense of relief.
According to StreamLine Feed, the financial consequences for Rayanair are expected to be limited, as minimal, as “the airline frequently contests compensation claims by classifying technical faults as ‘extraordinary circumstances’, a legal defense that requires exhaustive proof to succeed in court“.
And this is what Ryanair claims. Its statement was quoted in The Daily Mail claims that it was a technical glitch in the aircraft:
‘This flight from Krakow to Liverpool (3 Aug) was delayed due to a technical issue with the aircraft. ‘Passengers were notified and kept up-to-date via email, PUSH notifications and ground staff. Passengers were offered to receive a full refund, to change flight free of charge, or to wait for this flight, which departed Krakow at 00.32am local time. ‘Passenger who chose to wait for this flight received 5 sets of vouchers (85 PLN total).’
