The fallout of a recent IT network glitch with Aer Lingus is coming to light as people continue in their efforts to get in and out of the country after many flight cancellations.
Thousands of people will be trying to contact Aer Lingus today for an update on their new flights, but their lines will also be flooded with people looking for refunds after yesterday.
A total of 51 flights were halted from Dublin, which in turn affected returning flights from elsewhere in Europe.
READ MORE: Chaos as passengers affected by Aer Lingus cancellations say they are stranded in Europe
The Irish carrier has 'sincerely apologised' to customers in light of the many cancellation on Saturday as they explained that key systems for check-in and boarding crashed as well as the website itself.
A statement released in the aftermath of the issue explained that the system outage was caused by a break in connectivity from a network provider in the UK.
A total of 51 flights were cut from the schedule to and from Dublin as well as other European and UK destinations.
A spokesperson said the airline was contacting all customers that were affected in order to rebook new flights or issue refunds, dependent on each person’s situation.
However, one passenger, Hannah Carton remains stranded in Rome, Italy and says she still hasn’t heard from Aer Lingus and said she found out about her cancellation from the Airport, not the airline.
She told Newstalk Breakfast: "We were pretty much on our way to the airport when we found out the flight was cancelled.
"It was actually the airport that e-mailed us, because we had put on 'Flight Updates', and everybody on our flight kind of held on in the airport to try and get on our flight.
"But of course ultimately it was cancelled - so it was the airport [that] organised the hotel and stuff.
"But there's no Aer Lingus stand in Rome Airport, so you couldn't actually talk to any staff.
"People were very kind of left in the dark... we were all just put into a coach and into a hotel, and didn't get any e-mail or text or anything.”
She said she and her friend had to resort to booking their own flight to Naples, with the hopes of getting back to Dublin soon.
"We're literally outside Naples Airport now... just to try kind of get the next flight.
"We're both Monday to Friday workers, so it would have been a loss of pay or some annual leave if we actually held out until they could get us on the next flight.”
She added: "To this day, we still haven't actually gotten an e-mail or text directly from Aer Lingus to us saying that that flight was cancelled.”
An Aer Lingus spokesperson told the Irish mirror: "Aer Lingus sincerely apologises to customers for the severe disruption caused on Saturday by the unavailability of our key systems for check-in, boarding and our website. This system outage was caused by a break in connectivity in services from a UK network provider.
"All of our systems were restored on Saturday evening enabling Aer Lingus to operate the vast majority of services on Sunday and we expect to operate our full schedule today.
"Customers impacted by Saturday’s disruption are being contacted and where possible rebooked onto the next available Aer Lingus flight. We have also added additional capacity and services on a number of our European routes today and tomorrow to accommodate customers impacted by the disruption.
"Customers who wish to apply for a refund or change their travel plans, can do so free of charge through aerlingus.com, our social media channels or via our call centres.
"We have increased the number of our Call Centre agents available to support our customers, however due to the level of disruption, call wait times may be longer.
"Hotel accommodation has been offered to our customers at most airports. Customers who secured their own accommodation will be reimbursed accordingly.
"Once again Aer Lingus sincerely apologises for the severe disruption caused and we are doing all we can to re-accommodate disrupted customers as efficiently as possible."
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