London - Britain's biggest budget airline flew a vulnerable 84-year-old Greek woman who spoke no English from Manchester to Malta instead of Athens - and compounded the error by flying her bag to the Greek capital without her aboard the plane. It took a further two days for easyJet to return the woman to her home country.
Argyro Aretaki, who has mobility issues, was booked to fly from Manchester to Athens with easyJet on 18 May. Her son, Dimitri Aretakis, took her to the airport's Terminal 1, where he had arranged for special assistance.
Mr Aretakis said: “She was left in a wheelchair by the gate. When she realised no one was going to take her to her plane she decided to get up and follow the crowd.”
Two easyJet flights, to Malta and Athens, were due to depart within 10 minutes from adjacent gates. They had almost identical flight numbers: 1997 and 1947. Mrs Aretaki mistakenly joined the queue for the Malta flight. Ground staff allowed her aboard even though her boarding pass showed a different destination.
She found her assigned seat occupied. “She showed her boarding pass to the cabin crew and was simply shown to another seat,” said her son.
On the aircraft bound for Athens, Mrs Aretaki's non-appearance went unnoticed. In contravention of security rules, the plane took off with her suitcase in the hold. Mrs Aretaki landed more than 500 miles from her intended destination.
“My mother was not aware that she was in Malta rather than Athens,” said Mr Aretakis. “But when no one was at the airport to collect her she realised that something was wrong. She became very distressed until another airport user took her to the information centre.”
Airport staff found her son's number and contacted him. Mr Aretakis immediately called easyJet customer service: “Despite my request to be given a number to contact someone in their organisation who could assist directly, I was told that I would have to wait for them to contact me when they had some news. I found this completely unacceptable.”
He then contacted his sister, who was waiting at Athens airport, and asked her to try to track down her mother's baggage. “She was repeatedly told that there was no way the flight left with unattended luggage on board,” he said. “Later they admitted it had been taken to Athens.”
There was a direct flight that night from Malta to Athens, but Mrs Aretaki was instead sent back to Manchester. She finally flew to Athens two days after her first attempt.
In 2012, an 11-year-old boy was allowed to fly to Rome from the same terminal with neither a passport nor a boarding pass.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “The procedures in place for boarding passengers with reduced mobility were not followed. Although this was an isolated incident, we have put in place corrective measures to prevent any reoccurrences. We have refunded the cost of the flight and awarded compensation.”
A spokesperson for Manchester airport said: “The member of staff took the passenger to a nearby gate, an error which we are taking very seriously. As part of our investigation we plan to introduce additional procedures such as additional signage and wayfinding for assistance staff.”
The Civil Aviation Authority is investigating.
The Independent