More than 30 passengers were left stranded at Manchester Airport on Monday after a Jet2 flight to Alicante departed without them due to a stairwell mix-up. The group, who had shown their boarding passes at the departure gate, mistakenly went down a set of stairs instead of following the air bridge to the Airbus A321 aircraft.
The stranded travellers waited in a dead-end space for up to 40 minutes, expecting a bus to take them to the plane. Passenger Matt from Denton told the Manchester Evening News he was “gobsmacked” by the incident, adding that Jet2 staff said it had “never happened before”. He criticised the lack of a headcount before departure.
Flight LS879 left Manchester’s Terminal 3 at around 7am as scheduled for the two-hour and 45-minute journey. Jet2 has apologised and is investigating the incident “as a matter of urgency” with the airport. Alternative flights to Alicante were arranged for all affected travellers, who also received a £10 voucher while waiting.
