Bride's Bachelorette Party ‘Ruined’ After Ryanair Cancels Flight

The bachelorette party of a bride-to-be was marred by significant travel delays amid dozens of cancellations by Ryanair last Tuesday, one of which was the long-awaited Ibiza, Spain-bound flight from Manchester, England, for the woman’s “hen do” (an English pre-wedding tradition similar to a bachelorette party).

The cancellations affected more than 20,000 passengers last week after French air traffic controllers went on strike, grounding more than 100 flights.

Leanne Wall from Stockbridge Village, England, was en route to Ibiza with 21 friends and family members, the Liverpool Echo reported Thursday. Members of her party were able to arrive in Ibiza a day later by booking other flights out of Newcastle, Palma, Madrid and Barcelona, but the 34-year-old makeup artist said the cancellation has tarnished the weeks leading up to her big day.

“It’s taken a shine off the weeks before the wedding because I’m still trying to sort out the refunds,” she said, according to the Liverpool Echo. “It completely ruined my hen do."

Wall added that the cancellation, which she’d coordinated in September of last year, cost her friends and family a day of celebrations as well as “£3,000 between us.”

“We’ve been offered £37 each, but we’ve lost money from what we paid on tickets and we also had to cover the cost of new ticket and coach transfer,” she said. “We just wanted to go on the hen do.”

The airline confirmed the cancellation to the Liverpool Echo and said it apologized to “all customers affected by this French ATC strike, which was completely beyond our control.”

“The customer in question was offered a full refund, a free transfer onto the next available flight, or a free transfer on to an alternative routing and chose to travel on an alternative flight,” the airline said.

Wall’s trip wasn’t the only planned vacation that was spoiled by the controller strike. A couple and their four daughters, who had saved for a trip to Spain for a year, also found themselves stranded at the airport Tuesday.

“We normally go away for a weekend camping and we couldn't do it because we were saving up for this holiday, we now won't be getting a holiday this year,” Kellie Roffee said, according to Mirror Online.

The airline confirmed the incident to International Business Times in a statement.

“This flight from Leeds Bradford to Malaga (12 Sep) was regrettably canceled due to a French Air Traffic Control Strike,” Ryanair told IBT. “The customers in question have been fully refunded. Ryanair sincerely apologized to all customers affected by this French ATC strike, which was entirely beyond our control.”