THOUSANDS of passengers have been left stranded in airports around Europe after a major UK air traffic control fault saw hundreds of flights cancelled.
Passengers have been warned flights in and out of the UK and Ireland remain "significantly disrupted" on Tuesday.
A "technical issue" on Monday caused widespread delays and cancellations before it was resolved. And although the problem which caused the cancellations has now been dealt with, it's feared the massive backlog will not be cleared for the better part of the week.
National Air Traffic Services (Nats), said it will still "take some time" for flights to return to normal.
One passenger caught up in the chaos is our colleague, journalist Joe McCann, who is stranded in Berlin following a city break with his wife.
He had been due to fly back to Dublin with Ryanair on Monday when his flight was cancelled.
"We were just about to enter security when it said the flight was cancelled on our app," he said.
"We were one of the first to get to the information desk with another couple from the North in front of us.
"The woman who was working at the information kiosk had no idea Ryanair had cancelled the flight.
"In fact, we were told to go through security anyway but we insisted it was cancelled on our apps and asked her to call them and confirm, which she reluctantly did.
CANCELLED: Ryanair flights across Europe were disrupted on Monday
"Our apps all began bugging out next and when they finally began working again we found out the next flight had been completely booked out and were therefore forced to book a flight in two days' time, Wednesday.
"We have been fortunate to have a friend’s apartment we can stay in while we’re here but other passengers had to fork out hundreds of euro on last-minute hotel rooms.
"As passengers you understand these things happen but perhaps a conversation needs to be had about how airlines deliberately make it impossible to contact them in these situations.
"There were no phone numbers, only a robotic chat window that was as useful as a hole in the head. Staff on the ground were either nowhere to be seen or clueless and dismissive. When a number was found by a fellow passenger, it was disconnected."
When finally reached for comment Ryanair said: “Due to another UK ATC failure, Ryanair will be forced to delay/cancel a number of flights to/from the UK today, August 28. All affected passengers will be notified of their options to change flights (free of charge) to another Ryanair flight or receive a full refund.
"We sincerely apologise for this UK ATC failure which is beyond Ryanair’s control and is affecting all airlines operating to/from the UK.”
