A ROW has broken out after a blind woman missed a flight to her friend’s wedding.

Claire Randall, who has been completely blind since birth, said she would never use the budget airline Ryanair again after she missed the flight to Porto in Portugal on Friday.

The 35-year-old, of Wynwards Road, Abbey Meads, north Swindon, claimed long queues at Ryanair flight desks meant her family could not hand over bags in time for the flight.

However, a spokesman for the airline claimed every other passenger scheduled for the flight made it on board, and accused Mrs Randall of arriving late.

Mrs Randall, her husband David, 35, and six-year-old son Nathan paid £300 for the flights from Stansted Airport, near London.

She claimed the family had checked in online so only had to hand their luggage in at a drop-off point after arriving at the airport at 5pm for the 6.35pm flight.

When they arrived at the airport all Ryanair customers were queueing to drop their bags at the same unspecified destination desks, she said.

Certain flights were being called out periodically by Ryanair staff, she said.

Mrs Randall added the family was forced to abandon their journey as, by the time they reached their flight desk, they were told the flight had closed, and they would not be entitled to a refund.

She said: “It was absolutely horrendous. It wasn’t an experience I will ever repeat – I will never fly with them again.

“I would say don’t do budget airlines. I want to get my money back because I feel Ryanair has not provided the service I have paid for – I was there in good time to board the flight.”

Last Saturday, 700 Ryanair passengers, including BBC Question Time presenter David Dimbleby, watched their flights from Stansted Airport leave without them. Ryanair communications manager Daniel Carvalho admitted there had been queueing problems on Saturday, but said there was no indication of problems on Friday.

He said: “We really regret the inconvenience suffered by Mrs Randall due to her being late – her fellow passengers weren’t and they travelled. She missed a wedding, which is very sad.

“One hundred and eighty six passengers did not find any problems – all the other passengers on her flight made the flight.”