54 Ryanair passengers miss Manchester flight after Copenhagen Airport passport queues

Disruption overview

Long passport-control queues at Copenhagen Airport on 18 August 2026 caused 54 Ryanair passengers to miss an evening flight to Manchester Airport after a water leak shut down automated passport booths in Pier E. The flight still departed, leaving affected passengers to arrange a new way home and, in some cases, deal with overnight stays or expensive last-minute tickets. Because the disruption was caused by airport infrastructure outside the airline's control, compensation under EC 261 is unlikely, but passengers should still be offered care and assistance while they wait for another flight.

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Disruption details

Long passport-control queues at Copenhagen Airport on 18 August 2026 left 54 Ryanair passengers stranded after they missed an evening flight to Manchester Airport. For those passengers, the disruption didn't end with a delay. The flight left without them, and they were left to sort out a new way back to the United Kingdom.

The Boeing 737-800 was scheduled to depart with 179 passengers on board. By the time boarding closed, only around two-thirds of the people booked on the flight had made it through the queues and reached the gate. The bags checked in by the missing passengers then had to be removed from the hold before the aircraft could depart.

Only 1 Ryanair service was directly affected, but the impact on those passengers was still significant. Missing the flight meant unexpected overnight stays for some and expensive last-minute tickets for others, especially for anyone trying to get home that same night.

The bottleneck began after a water leak hit a server room supporting the automated passport-control area in Pier E at Copenhagen Airport. That forced all passport booths in Pier E to close for the rest of the day, pushing every departing passenger traveling outside the Schengen area through the single remaining checkpoint in Pier C.

With half the usual passport-control capacity unavailable, queues quickly grew well beyond the normal advice of arriving 2 hours before a short-haul European flight. Some passengers were still stuck in the backlog when their boarding pass QR codes showed the gate had already closed.

Copenhagen Airport said the problem was caused by the water leak and the related technical failure, not by the EU Entry/Exit System that has been linked to delays elsewhere in Europe. The airport apologized and said normal operations resumed later that night once the leak was contained and the servers were back online.

There were no further flight cancellations or knock-on delays reported after the affected Ryanair departure. Ryanair had not said whether it would offer rebooking or other support, but for stranded passengers the immediate issue was finding a new seat and managing the extra cost and stress of the disruption.

Because this problem stemmed from airport infrastructure rather than something Ryanair controlled, compensation under EC 261 is unlikely. Even so, that doesn't mean you're without support. If your journey was affected, the airline should still help with care and assistance, which can include meals, accommodation if you need to stay overnight, and rebooking or a refund. If you want to check what applies to your trip, AirHelp's free flight checker is a simple place to start.

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