Ryanair mocks British Airways as flight wrongly lands in Edinburgh

An attempt by Ryanair to make fun of a British Airways flight mistakenly landing in Edinburgh has backfired on the budget airline.

A post on Ryanair’s official Twitter account said the company had a “present” for BA – a copy of Geography for Dummies.

The post was made after a BA plane bound for Dusseldorf in Germany instead touched down in the Scottish capital on Monday in what is believed to have been caused by a mix-up in flight paperwork.

However, Ryanair’s move to ridicule the rival airline has sparked a backlash on social media.

Twitter users responded by making a number of suggestions of books Ryanair could read, including “Customer Service for Dummies”.

Nick Lyes (@nicholaslyes) posted: “Ryanair probably would have charged extra.”

Fellow Twitter user @travelingpsych1 posted a timely reminder, saying: “May I remind @Ryanair of the flight FR8582 from London to Thessaloniki, Greece, that landed to Timisoara, Romania (500 miles and 2 international frontiers from its supposed destination). Perhaps, you could read ‘Geography for Dummies’ first...”

The plane landed in Edinburgh instead of Dusseldorf on Monday. Pic: f11 photo/Shutterstock

A post from BA’s official account read: “Now, now. No one is perfect.”

Other Twitter users poked fun at Ryanair over its practice of flying to airports that are miles away from the supposed destination. Among these remote airports is Beauvais, which is more than 50 miles north of Paris, but is marketed as a route to the French capital.

Ryanair was again named the UK’s least-liked short-haul airline in results of a survey announced in January.

Passengers on board the BA flight had earlier been left stunned when they were greeted with a “Welcome to Edinburgh” message after touching down in the Scottish destination.

Initially perceiving it to be a joke, travellers only realised they were actually in Edinburgh when the captain entered the cabin of the BA3271 flight and asked people to put up their hands if they were expecting to go to Dusseldorf. They were later taken on to the German city, after a two hour delay on the runway in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Airport said the landing was a “surprise”.