Passengers travelling from Tours Airport in France to Marrakech in Morocco were left in disbelief after they realised they had missed their flight

Ryanair passengers were stunned when they glanced through the terminal windows after queuing for 90 minutes at security. Twenty-four travellers looked on in astonishment as their aircraft departed whilst they remained stranded in the airport.

The service, departing from Tours Airport in France, was scheduled to fly to Marrakech in Morocco at 12.15pm on Wednesday, 11 March. With a quarter of an hour remaining, the captain decided to shut the doors and continue with the flight, leaving behind a group of passengers.

According to Ici, the captain instructed that the passengers’ luggage be offloaded from the aircraft to keep to his timetable. Whilst acknowledging the carrier was entitled to make this decision, French holidaymaker Maxime expressed his shock at the turn of events.

The 37-year-old maintains he reached the airport nearly two hours ahead of his planned departure. He commented: “It’s a completely crazy situation.

“Going through customs and security took ages. We spent over an hour and a half there. At one point, we realised the pilot had decided to take off without us, knowing that our suitcases were already on the Ryanair plane.”

Maxime reports his belongings stayed on the tarmac as the aircraft lifted off at 12.57pm, 42 minutes beyond its scheduled departure time. He characterised it as a “completely absurd situation”.

Louis Chaumont, director of Tours Airport, called the incident “regrettable”. He clarified that pilots are permitted to depart during their allocated take-off slot to prevent delays in securing another available window.

According to him, three key factors contributed to passengers missing their flight. He stated: “The first was an unannounced inspection by the gendarmerie brigade across the entire airport. The second is the introduction of a new measure, the ESS (Entry/Exit System).

“This is a measure introduced by the EU which requires customs checks on all passengers entering and leaving the Schengen area, so passengers travelling to Marrakech are affected.

“Previously, the screening rate was 10%, and it takes time to implement this measure, which takes three to four minutes per passenger. Added to this is the third factor: the pilot of this flight had a designated take-off slot. If he doesn’t comply, he has no idea when he’ll be able to get another one to fly. So he’s perfectly within his rights to close the doors of his plane and take his slot.”

Whilst the director stopped short of guaranteeing full reimbursement for affected passengers, he indicated that compensation requests would be reviewed individually. He confirmed the airport “will investigate what happened and determine who is responsible.”

In a response to French media outlets, Ryanair defended its approach as ensuring “punctual departure”. The airline maintained that hold-ups within the airport were “entirely beyond our control”.

A spokesperson informed ICI: “Had these passengers arrived on time, they would have boarded this Tours–Marrakech flight alongside the 155 other passengers who arrived at the gate on time. We regret that these delays, caused by security checks at Tours Val de Loire Airport-which are entirely beyond our control-resulted in some passengers missing this flight.”