British tourists have been left stranded at Portugal’s biggest airport after a fuel pump breakdown grounded flights.
Passengers were forced to sleep on the terminal floor at Lisbon airport after the system failure on Wednesday left thousands of people unable to get home.
Ryanair was among the airlines affected, along with the Portuguese national carrier TAP, which was warning customers that delays would run into Thursday.
Priyank Lakhia, from London, said: "It's a mess at Lisbon Airport, flights cancelled and barely any staff on ground. Wife still waiting for updates."
Jonathan Millar, also from London, added: "Lisbon airport...what a mess. No fuel, no flights. Tracker boards haven't been updated since 2pm. Utter chaos."
Ella Sykes, 27, from Leeds, said the scene in the terminal was "absolute carnage" when she and a friend arrived at the airport at 2pm for a 5.30pm Ryanair flight to Manchester after a short break in Lisbon.
Speaking on Thursday morning, she said: "We have been here all night. It's 17 hours now and we still haven't had any information from Ryanair. We have given up on the queues. We've booked a flight from Faro tomorrow morning.
"We are exhausted and we've had to fork out for accommodation overnight as well. And I was meant to be at work this morning."
She said the only information she had received about what was happening had come from the media, adding: "The airport was absolute carnage. There were far too many people in the departure lounge so they stopped letting people in."
On its Facebook page, the airport said there had been problems with the supply of fuel to aircraft, but it hoped flights would return to normal during Thursday.
A Ryanair spokesman said: “Due to a fuelling system outage at Lisbon Airport last night (10 May), we regret that we were forced to cancel a number of flights to/from Lisbon. All affected customers were provided with refreshment and accommodation vouchers, were contacted by email and SMS text message and advised of their options of a full refund, a free transfer onto the next available flight, or a free transfer onto an alternative flight route, in full compliance with EU261 legislation.
"Ryanair sincerely apologised to all customers affected by this disruption, which was entirely beyond our control.”
Marius Fermi, UK Country Manager at AirHelp, added:"Generally, if your flight’s delayed or cancelled, the airline should provide you meals, refreshments and access to phone calls and emails, but it’s also worth holding on to any documents you’re given related to the disruption and keeping all of your receipts – you may be able to claim back on any reasonable expenses.”
