Brandenburg Airport, Berlin. Photo: Shutterstock Ryanair has harshly criticized the Berlin-Brandenburg regional aviation authority after its flight FR144 from Berlin to London was grounded over the weekend due to the enforcement of a night flight ban, even though the delay was caused by a minor technical issue.
The company claims the flight was scheduled to depart just five minutes after the night ban began (23:00), yet the authorities refused to approve the late departure even under these exceptional circumstances.
Ryanair reports that this is the second incident this week where passengers have had to stay an extra night in Berlin due to the flight ban, following a similar incident on a flight to Lisbon on Sunday.
The Irish company stated in a special announcement: "We again call on the LuBB aviation authority to urgently implement flexibility in the strict and discriminatory night ban at Berlin Airport. This follows a delay on flight FR144 from Berlin (BER) to Stansted (STN) that resulted in a lack of take-off permission because it was supposed to depart less than 5 minutes after the start of the night flight ban."
The company adds: "The delay was caused by a minor technical issue, which was outside Ryanair's control. Despite the exceptional circumstances, the LuBB authority once again refused to grant any leniency on the ban, resulting in the flight not taking off and staying grounded overnight, causing significant and preventable inconvenience to passengers."
Marcel Meier, head of communications for Ryanair in the German-speaking region, said:
"It is unacceptable for passengers to be punished due to a slight delay caused by a technical issue. Berlin's rigid and inflexible regulations primarily hurt the passengers, ignoring unexpected events. This is absurd."
Ryanair is calling on the head of the aviation authority, Carsten Dickmann, to immediately change this policy and create flexibility in cases of delays that are beyond the airlines' control.
