Ryanair will not pay compensation for cancelled flights

Some 27,000 passengers are thought to have been affected by delays and cancellations on Tuesday

Thousands of passengers who had their travel plans thrown into chaos by flight cancellations at Stansted Airport will not receive compensation.

Ryanair grounded more than 150 flights on Tuesday citing thunderstorms.

Holidaymakers and other passengers have been left to count the cost as the airline has said it will not be paying out for the disruption.

Ryanair said this was because the cancellations were due to "extraordinary circumstances".

Under European Union regulations if a flight is delayed by more than three hours passengers are entitled to a refund or alternative travel arrangements being made.

The carrier said service had returned to normal on Wednesday after six days of issues, but several flights were still delayed.

Ryanair said air traffic controller shortages in countries such as Croatia, France and Germany had also contributed to the problems.

The British Sailing Team were due to fly to Aarhus in Denmark on Tuesday

Among those who will be missing out on compensation is the British Sailing Team who were on their way to Denmark for the World Sailing Championships.

Head of communications Will Carson, who made the 860-mile trip by car after their flight to Aarhus was cancelled by Ryanair, said: "We have a very limited pot of funding - much of it from UK Sport grants - to use, so any wasted on missed flights that can't be subsequently recovered means that we have less money to fulfil our programme."

Ryanair has said the thunderstorms on Tuesday morning created "extraordinary circumstances"

A Ryanair spokesman said: "Customers affected by flights disrupted due to the adverse weather in recent days were notified by email and SMS text message and advised of their options of a refund or free move to the next available flight.

"Ryanair fully complies with all EU261 legislation, however as these flight cancellations were caused by extraordinary circumstances (weather), no EU261 compensation is due."