Irish holidaymakers who were stranded at Cork airport and at airports in Greece and Spain for over 24 hours plan to take action against the airline responsible.
Some 170 passengers were due to fly to Malaga at 10am on Sunday, but did not take off from Cork until 9.20am yesterday.
Meanwhile, 200 disgruntled passengers returned to Cork airport from the Greek island of Zakynthos yesterday morning after experiencing delays of 25 hours.
A flight from Malaga due into Cork yesterday morning was also delayed, not arriving until 3.30pm.
Gertrude Cotter from Cork, who spent a day stranded at the airport on the Greek island of Zakynthos, said passengers were treated like "cattle".
"We were herded in and herded out. There was no place to sit at the airport. You wouldn't believe the conditions we were in. We are all going to look for compensation for everything we paid for. The other thing was the cost at Zakynthos airport. It cost me €14 yesterday for a sandwich and a cup of tea."
Ms Cotter's comments were echoed by mother-of-three Avril Geary, whose trip to Malaga in Spain was subject to a 24-hour delay at Cork airport.
Ms Geary, who was travelling with her children aged eight months, six and eight years, said it was unacceptable for families to pay thousands of euro for holidays only to end up waiting around in airports for a day.
"This holiday has cost us almost €3,000, and to be here with no information for 24 hours is just not acceptable. When I get home I will be doing something about this."
The delays have centred on new charter company Eirjet, based in Shannon. Eirjet does contract work for travel companies such as Falcon Holidays and Panorama. Last Friday one of the company's flights to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands was delayed for 24 hours. At the time the company said the delay was due to heavy fog at Cork airport. Eirjet declined to comment on yesterday's delays.
Falcon Holidays, the company responsible for the Malaga flights, yesterday apologised to passengers, saying it was doing everything in its power to return the service to normal. A spokesman for Falcon said the delays were due to a "knock on effect" from problems Eirjet experienced on Friday. They also attributed the delays to poor weather conditions in Cork.
Panorama, tour operators for the Zakynthos flight, said the return journey to Cork was delayed because the Eirjet crew had exceeded its duty-hour limitations and needed rest. It apologised for the "unprecedented and unfortunate" delays.
Cork airport director Joe O'Connor said yesterday he was concerned about developments involving Eirjet passengers. The company was a small operation which would not have large numbers of aircraft at its disposal.
Cork Fianna Fáil TD Noel O'Flynn has called for an inquiry, and has urged passengers to seek compensation under new legislation introduced by Minister for Transport Martin Cullen.