Thousands of UK travellers are trying to return home after being stranded overnight because of widespread power cuts in Portugal and Spain.
Airports in both countries were disrupted as the power cuts acrosshe Iberian pensinsula caused chaos knocking out airport systems .
Twenty-five flights from Portugal to the UK were cancelled along with 11 flights from the UK to Spain.
Airlines affected included British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and TAP.
There were five cancellations to Heathrow, four to each of Bristol and Gatwick, three to each of Luton and Manchester, and two to Stansted.
One flight was cancelled to each of Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham and Newcastle.
Many other flights were delayed.
A 9.10pm British Airways departure from Porto to Gatwick was delayed overnight.
Delayed passengers are entitled to assistance if they are booked on a flight operated by a UK or EU airline arriving at a UK airport.
This should include a reasonable amount of food and drink (often via vouchers), a means for you to communicate (often by refunding the cost of phone calls), and accommodation and transfers if an overnight stay is required.
Several affected passengers expressed their frustration on social media platform X.
Gareth Cleverly posted a message to easyJet stating he was “stuck at Faro airport” after a flight was cancelled.
He went on: “We have had zero contact since the cancellation email, we’re stranded.
“Where is our hotel? We don’t fly again until Wednesday morning. Respond asap please.”
Another passenger wrote to the airline stating: “I’m stranded in Faro!
“You’ve cancelled our flights, not updated the app so it’s still showing live and there’s nobody at the airport to help us?
“What’s going on?”
Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said: “Airlines must look after passengers when flights are cancelled, whatever the reason for the cancellation.
“That means putting you on an alternate flight to get you to your destination, if needed, or you can accept a refund.
“You are almost certainly better off insisting on rerouting if you still intended to travel, as flights will be expensive.
“Airlines will struggle to meet these requirements during the current situation.
“But if you are stuck because your flight has been cancelled or delayed and need to buy a meal, or need a hotel overnight, make sure you keep the receipts as you will be able to claim this back from the airline.”
EasyJet said in a statement: “We have been informed that power has been restored to the key airports we fly to and from in Portugal and Spain and so plan to operate our flying programme as normal.
“We are advising customers to check flight tracker for the latest information on their flights. We continue to monitor the situation closely.
“Any customers who are in Spain or Portugal and unable to travel to the airport due to the outage are eligible for free-of-charge transfers to an alternative easyJet flight within 72 hours or a flight voucher.”
British Airways and Ryanair were approached for a comment.
Power is returning to Spain and Portugal on Tuesday but some flight disruption is continuing as many aircraft and flight crew are out of position.
Officials are working to establish the cause of the outages.
