Stansted airport: Thousands have travel plans wrecked in latest bank holiday meltdown

After a day of delays, diversions and cancellations at Stansted airport, thousands of travellers will wake up on Monday morning far from where they were hoping to be.

Thunderstorms and lightning strikes in the early hours of Sunday damaged equipment essential for pumping fuel to the aircraft stands.

The problem meant that the aircraft lined up for the first wave of flights, which normally starts just before 6am, were unable to refuel.

On one of the busiest days in the year, inbound aircraft were ordered to divert to Luton, Southend and East Midlands because there was no room on stands at Stansted.

The majority of problems were on Ryanair, which has its main base at the Essex airport and is by far the biggest operator there.

By 9am Ryanair had started cancelling flights – initially the return legs of aircraft that had been diverted.

The first cancellation was a departure to Barcelona at 8.15am. But the inbound aircraft diverted to Luton and returned empty to Spain.

About 180 passengers were told to collect their baggage and re-book their trips. Many of them joined a queue which extended all the way back to International Arrivals, including Joanne Hickey from Ruislip, northwest London. She had arrived at Stansted with her family at 6am for the flight.

“It’s half-term – we need to get out today,” she said. “Not very happy.”

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A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “A number of flights have regrettably been cancelled at Stansted airport this morning due to an earlier airport fuelling system failure, caused by a lightning strike.

“All affected customers are being contacted and advised of their options of a full refund, a free transfer on to the next available flight or a free transfer on to an alternative routing.

“We apologise to all customers affected by these disruptions, which are entirely beyond our control.”

As delays built, cancellations increased. By Sunday evening, around 100 departures and arrivals had been grounded, affecting more than 15,000 passengers. Finding alternative flights is likely to prove difficult on many routes, with very few spare seats available.

Many more flights were severely delayed, with a Jet2 flight to Tenerife operating nearly 10 hours late. The inbound passengers were expected to arrive in the early hours of Monday morning, rather than on Sunday afternoon.

Jet2 also cancelled a round trip to the Greek island of Rhodes and another to Nice; easyJet’s afternoon round trip to Amsterdam was grounded.

One outbound British Airways flight departed for Ibiza but flew only 30 miles to Southend to obtain enough fuel for the trip to the Mediterranean. However, it still arrived over three hours late on the Spanish island.

Stansted airport told travellers: “Due to an earlier lightning strike, the aircraft fuelling system was unavailable for a period this morning.

“Engineers have been on site and have now restored the system, however flights may still be subject to diversion, delay or cancellation.

“We apologise for the inconvenience and advise all passengers to check with their airlines for their latest flight updates.”

Passengers whose flights are cancelled, diverted or severely delayed are entitled to meals and, if necessary, accommodation at the airline’s expense until they can reach their destination.

If Ryanair cannot arrange an alternative flight on the day of cancellation or the following day, it will pay for tickets on other airlines.

Over the Easter bank holiday two months ago, 20,000 passengers were stranded when a car park shuttle bus caught fire outside the terminal in Stansted. After the resulting evacuation, dozens of flights were cancelled.

Sunday’s chaos at Stansted took place a year to the day after the failure of British Airways’ IT system, causing hundreds of cancellations at Heathrow and Gatwick over the bank holiday weekend.