I recently flew out of Rome Ciampino on a 06:15 flight, and I experienced perhaps the most disorganised / out-of-sync check-in process there, which almost led me to miss my flight. The airport is closed all night and opens up at 04:30 by when there are many passengers accumulated outside queuing to go inside, followed by a single common check-in line for all flights regardless of departure time. I personally got to the airport around 04:45 and found myself queuing quite far back on the check-in line. The first 4 flights (including mine) were at 06:00, 06:10 and 2 flights at 06:15 with the rest following from 06:25 onward. Needless to say, the queue was not based on departure time, it was a mix of passengers including later departures.

The queue was originally moving at a reasonable pace but by 05:30 as we approached the first departure.time, a couple of check-in staff moved to different check-in desks and formed their own queue for a supposedly rapid check-in for the first 2 departures, and then 5-10 mins later asked passengers for the next 2 departures to move to that queue, which wasn't moving particularly rapidly and still had passengers for the first 2 departures on there. I actually would have been through security by the time I did check-in via the "rapid" queue, if I had just been able to stay in main queue.

The check-in agent spent more than 5 mins on 1 passenger with a seemingly complicated issue, and there was growing chaos and frustration behind, including me. I even got the attention of the agent briefly and asked if the flights will wait for us to complete check-in, and he said "I don't know, I am just 1 person dealing with all of you". I had already seen a passenger for the 06:00 in the "rapid" queue who got to the front around 05:45 only to be told his flight had already closed. I have to admit I took advantage of a bit of the resulting chaos and pushed through to complete my check-in, and just about made it through security and to my flight, which thankfully was just outside the gate. Less than 5 mins after I entered the plane, the doors closed, so quite a close call.

I'm left wondering if this may be an intentional tactic to have some people miss their flights and therefore spend more money on new flights. Would Ryanair re-book people to the next flight free of charge and pay for interim accommodation, especially considering that the flight was only missed due to their insufficient capacity / organisation at check-in?