French authorities release grounded Ryanair plane
A Ryanair aircraft that was forbidden by French authorities to leave Bordeaux airport on Thursday has now been given the all-clear to depart after the airline settled a long-standing bill.
The Stansted-bound plane was seized in what the French civil aviation authority described as a ‘last resort’, with 149 passengers on board told to disembark. They flew to Stansted on another Ryanair flight, five hours later.
Earlier this year, a French judge ordered Ryanair to pay back €525,000 (£457,000) in subsidies paid to the airline for flights from Angoulême regional airport between 2008 and 2009, which the European Commission later deemed illegal.
The authority said the plane would ‘remain immobilised until the sum is paid’. According to latest reports, Ryanair paid the money back to the French authorities on Friday afternoon and the plane was given the all-clear to leave.
The French civil aviation authority said: "It is unfortunate that the state had to take such action, which led to the inevitable inconvenience of the 149 passengers on board the immobilised plane.
"Those passengers were able to eventually reach their destination later that evening on another Ryanair plane, but with a five-hour delay."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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