On Sunday, Stansted Airport was forced to close its runway due to heavy snowfall in the East of England. I was booked to fly into Stansted during this time and found my flight canceled. Here's everything that happened in the immediate aftermath.

Check-in as normal

I was expecting that if anything went wrong on Sunday, it would be getting the train between Frankfurt and Nuremberg. Surprisingly (as anybody familiar with Deutsche Bahn's punctuality will know), the train was on time. As I arrived in Nuremberg, I checked in for my flight on the Ryanair app a little more than two hours before we were due to depart. At this point, there was no indication that anything out of the ordinary was occurring.

Photo: London Stansted Airport

I took the U-Bahn to the airport and passed through the security checkpoint, where almost all the passengers were heading for the London flight. Given that it was so late, there wasn't much to do at the airport, so I proceeded through immigration to leave the Schengen Zone.

Waiting, and waiting, and waiting

After passing through the passport control, I found myself in a gate area with toilets and a vending machine. Then, 70 minutes before the flight was due to depart, the ground crew started pre-boarding to a new holding area with vending machines but no toilet.

I sat near the gate and decided to look where my plane was on FlightRadar24.com. According to the flight tracking service, I was due to fly on a Boeing 737-800 registered EI-EVM.

There was just one problem. This aircraft, which should've been well on its way to Nuremberg by now, was still approaching Carcassonne on the outbound leg of its previous rotation. I continued to watch and saw that no plane was flying to Nuremberg. Our aircraft remained in Carcassonne (it eventually departed for London Stansted Airport over five hours late and diverted to Manchester Airport after holding at 21,000 above London for an hour).

Still no sign of panic

By this point, I was reasonably confident that I would not be flying to Stansted as planned. FlightRadar24.com showed aircraft waiting to take off, holding to land, and even diverting to other airports while snowplows tended the runway. However, despite all the evidence, the ground crew maintained that the flight had not been canceled.

Eventually, the Ryanair Travel Assistant updated to show the flight was canceled at around 21:53, half an hour before our scheduled departure. However, it wasn't until half an hour later that the flight was formally canceled, and Nuremberg's ground crew announced this over the tannoy system.

Photo: Ryanair App

Rebooking my flight

I had to wait until the flight was canceled in the booking system at around 22:20 to rebook my flight. Having dealt with Ryanair cancelations before, I refreshed the page every few seconds until the rebooking option was available. This still wasn't soon enough to book onto the morning departure from Nuremberg, but I was able to book myself onto the flight the following evening (Spoiler alert: this flight was also canceled).

Photo: Ryanair.com

The process of rebooking was straightforward. Once your flight is confirmed to have been canceled, the airline lets you rebook onto any future flight free of charge. However, you must take the next available one where possible to avail of the airline's duty of care (They won't pay for a hotel until Thursday if you could fly on Tuesday, for example).

I rebooked my flight around 5 minutes before the news reached the ground crew that the flight was canceled, so I asked them how I could leave the airport as I would not be traveling tonight. (I received my rebooking confirmation 23 minutes before the email informing me that my flight was canceled).

Re-entering Schengen

The agents told me to wait while they double-checked the cancelation and then announced it to the other waiting passengers. We had to re-enter the Schengen area through the passport control booths where we had left, essentially going through the wrong way.

Photo: London Stansted Airport

Thankfully, the border agents understood and processed everybody as quickly as possible. The Bundespolizei split the line into two: those needing a Schengen entry stamp and those not needing a stamp. As a resident of Germany, I was fortunate to be in the latter group and was quickly waved through, though no record was made of me reentering the country.

Booking accommodation

Under EU261 regulations, Ryanair has a duty of care to passengers, which includes providing accommodation if it isn't possible to continue a journey until the following day, even if the cancelation is out of the control of the airline. This is typically sorted via the booking desk.

As this was not my first time dealing with a canceled flight, I went straight to the booking desk and found myself at the front of the line. When the agent appeared, I explained that I had rebooked myself onto the next available flight and would require accommodation.

Photo: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com

The agent told me that it was best that I booked my own accommodation and sent the receipts to Ryanair, explaining that as the airline had canceled so many flights across the continent, it could take some hours until the head office had sorted out accommodation. Ryanair has a dedicated portal online for reclaiming reasonable expenses incurred during disruption.

Typically I would opt to wait for such a room to be booked by the airline to avoid the hassle of paying and then submitting receipts, but given that the time was nearing 23:00, I decided that this was not the time to do this. I thanked the agent and was on my way.

Ryanair's comment

Speaking to Simple Flying regarding the disruption, a Ryanair spokesperson yesterday said,

“Due to ongoing severe snowy weather across the UK, Stansted runway has closed temporarily disrupting flights to/from the airport last night (11 Dec) / today (12 Dec). Affected passengers have been notified and advised of their options.

They added,

"As the snowy weather continues across the UK, our teams are working hard to minimise disruption to customers and Ryanair advises all customers flying to/from the UK today (12 Dec) to check the Ryanair website/app for flight status updates before travelling to the airport. We sincerely apologise for these weather-related disruptions which are entirely beyond our control.”

What to know during flight disruption

If there is a chance that your flight may be canceled, it's best to try and be as quick as possible with rebooking. Most airlines will let you rebook online, though the best rebooking options tend to go quickly, especially if they are almost full. While I was lucky enough to book onto a flight the following evening, it would seem some others weren't as lucky, as Ryanair flights from Nuremberg to Stansted were fully booked until Thursday this morning. The wait has become even longer after the cancelation of tonight's flight.

SynthEx / Shutterstock.com

You should also know your rights. The airline must make you aware of these, but it doesn't hurt to be well-versed on the ins and outs of EU-261 if you have some time to read through it.

But above all else, you should also remain calm and respectful. I admit that it is very easy to get upset when your flight is canceled and your plans are ruined, though it's important to remember that the person behind the counter did not cancel your flight and is doing their best to try and help you. Don't make their job any harder than it already is.

Were you affected by the disruption at Stansted Airport over the past few days? Let us know in the comments below!