Bridget Brown was travelling to Frankfurt, Germany, earlier this month for a one-night getaway alongside her partner and two friends.
The 48-year-old flew from London Stansted Airport via Ryanair on December 7 to visit the city’s famous festive markets.
However, upon arriving at the airport, the mum-of-two was shocked to discover her group’s flight was heading to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport rather than Frankfurt Airport, which they had mistakenly believed when booking the trip.
Frankfurt Airport is just over seven miles from the city centre, however Frankfurt-Hahn is a staggering 80 miles or 92 miles, depending on the road taken.
Bridget, who lives in St Albans, Hertfordshire, was horrified to discover their destination was nearly a two-hour drive from the city centre markets they hoped to visit.
The midwife said dozens of people had made the same mistake as her on the plane, with passengers frantically researching ways to travel into the city.
The mum was outraged when she arrived at the ‘shoebox’ airport that resembled a ‘German military base’ and was still hours from their booked hotel.
To make matters worse, Bridget and her group were forced to fork out €350 on a taxi to travel into central Frankfurt.
Bridget believes the low-budget airline company are leaving their customers ‘stranded’ by ‘mis-selling’ a flight destination.
Bridget said: “[When we were booking the flight] it really obviously said Frankfurt, then added at the side it said ‘Frankfurt-Hahn’. We didn’t think anything of it when we saw that.
“We just presumed that it was Frankfurt. When we got to the airport, we were looking for our flight and it didn’t say Frankfurt, it said Hahn.
“Then my friend’s partner looked where Hahn was on his phone and we realised it was two hours away from Frankfurt where the Christmas markets are.
“We just didn’t understand how it had happened and thought this is going to be an absolute nightmare.
“When we got on the plane, we overheard another couple say ‘we can’t believe we’re flying to this airport’ and then other people on the plane started realising we weren’t actually going to Frankfurt.
“The poor girl sitting next to me burst into tears and started Googling where this place we were actually going to was.
“We realised that literally everyone on the plane had made the same mistake. Dozens of people were completely unaware we were flying into the middle of nowhere.”
Upon arriving at Frankfurt-Hahn airport, Bridget and her friends began frantically searching for a way to travel into the city, and ended up forking out more than €700 for transport back and forth to the airport.
Bridget said: “Hahn looks like some little military base with old German war bunkers surrounding it. There’s absolutely nothing there.
“The airport was like a shoebox. It just wasn’t somewhere anyone would go to ever unless they lived in Hahn. There’s nothing there. We felt stranded in the middle of nowhere.
“They had a train connection to Frankfurt which takes over three hours. People were trying to hire cars but they’d all sold out. There was an eight-seater taxi outside and he quoted us €350 to get to Hahn.
“I went back into the airport and picked up the first people walking out through passport control and asked if they wanted to share a cab to split the cost.
“We had to fork out money that we were going to be using on presents and things like that.
“People are just totally unaware that they’re going to the middle of nowhere. We thought it would be this really lovely day and ended up being this weekend of having to organise transfers and paying each other money.”
Bridget believes it’s ‘inaccurate’ for Ryanair to advertise Frankfurt as ‘Frankfurt-Hahn Airport’ when the site is hours away from the actual city.
Bridget said: “It’s inaccurate to have Frankfurt on that ticket.
“Ryanair should be saying Hahn, then in brackets Frankfurt. It should be advertised as a flight to Hahn, not Frankfurt, especially at this time of year when people are taking their loved ones away to the Christmas markets.
“Ryanair are fooling people into thinking they’re flying to Frankfurt for the Christmas markets. We were mis-sold something.”
A Ryanair spokesman said: “The claim that Ryanair ‘fooled’ this passenger is false. This passenger booked a return flight from London Stansted to Frankfurt Hahn, and was flown from London Stansted to Frankfurt Hahn on 7 Dec last as booked.
“The name of all Ryanair airports – including Frankfurt Hahn – are clearly stated on our website/app.
“It is the responsibility of the passenger to ensure they check the name of the destination airport they are choosing to fly to (and its whereabouts) before completing their booking.”
