A passenger at Dublin Airport has described how he had to "sleep on a bench at Burger King" with his family last night after around 115 flights were delayed or cancelled.

Yesterday, a "technical issue" at the UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) affected its flight planning system, causing major disruption at Irish airports.

Some 115 flights were cancelled yesterday, and more continued to be delayed and cancelled this morning.

This morning, in an updated statement, NATS said the issue had been "identified and remedied", but travellers continued to face disruption.

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning, passenger Liam Curry said he and his family arrived at Dublin Airport at 1pm yesterday, ahead of his 4:40pm flight to Turkey.

"While we were looking at the board, we saw these cancellations coming up," she said.

"While we were queuing up to check in, we got a message that we were going to be about 45 minutes delayed."

Bridget, Liam Jr, & Liam Curry Sr (Photo by Liam Curry Sr)

However, as Mr Curry approached security, he was informed that their boarding passes would not be accepted.

"When we went to someone for assistance, he said, 'You're coming in too early'," he said.

Mr Curry was then informed that his flight had been delayed until 11pm that night.

"I have been in touch with our carrier, SunExpress – they're a company out of Turkey," he said.

"They keep saying, 'We've been messaging everybody, we've been emailing everybody'.

"I can tell you right now that I am in an airport filled with people who are looking to go to Turkey – I'd say 75% of them have no idea what these people are talking about."

Thousands of passengers are stranded in Dublin airport. 29/08/2023. Photo: Sasko Lazarov

Mr Curry said he had to sleep on a bench at Burger King.

"There are people here with children in prams," he said. "There are people that are trying to get home to Turkey."

According to the European Commission, where the reasonably expected time of departure is at least the day after the time of departure previously announced, passengers are entitled to hotel accommodation and transport between the airport and that accommodation where an overnight stay becomes necessary.

Mr Curry said he was told by Dublin Airport that all accommodation in the nearby area had been booked.

"[Dublin Airport said] there's nothing they could do because it was SunExpress that had to do those things, and SunExpress does not have representation here at this airport," he said.

Thousands of passengers are stranded in Dublin airport. 29/08/2023. Photo: Sasko Lazarov

Aviation journalist Gerry Byrne said passengers who are booked to travel today will get priority over those who had their flights rescheduled yesterday.

"It's not so much the take-off slot at the airport, it's the actual availability of a plane, it's the availability of pilots, it's the availability of cabin crew," he said.

"There are planes stranded all over Europe.

"The plane that you are waiting for may not have come back yet."

Website

Mr Byrne said passengers should "not expect" too much from airlines.

"I've just been looking at the Aer Lingus website to see what flights are cancelled and what flights are left and there is no schedule put up," he said.

"You have to log on with your flight number and find out is [the] flight leaving on time, is [the] flight leaving at all.

"That's how desperate this situation is.

"To one degree one can't blame the airlines too much because this was completely out of their control."

You can listen back here:

Main image shows a split of passengers asleep in Dublin Airport (photos by Sasko Lazarov)