KEY POINTS

  • Actress Fay Ripley was furious after being left on a plane for 10 hours.
  • Dozens of Ryanair flights were cancelled at London Stansted Airport as heavy snow hit.
  • Passengers complained of being given little to no information about the situation.

Snow and ice has brought misery to thousands of festive travellers with flights either delayed or cancelled across the country.

But Ryanair have borne the brunt of anger from passengers, after many wound up sleeping in airport terminals as they awaited information about their cancelled flights.

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Several Ryanair flights were cancelled on Wednesday (27 December) at London's Stansted Airport as heavy snow hit overnight.

Passengers eager to return home after the Christmas break were left frustrated with the lack of information coming from airline officials.

Many had nowhere to go as local hotels were already at capacity.

One angry passenger was a cousin of the boss of Ryanair, and had been due to fly from London to Stockholm before the flight was cancelled due to weather conditions.

Christy O'Leary said: "Unfortunately the managing director is actually a long-distance cousin of mine - Michael O'Leary. I'm ashamed of him."

Sky News reported that passengers slept on the floor and on baggage belts while the situation unfolded.

Another casualty of the weather was the actress Fay Ripley who attacked Ryanair on Twitter after being left on her plane for several hours.

She wrote: "Just arrived in #Copenhagen after spending 10 yes 10 hrs On the runway. #shameonyou #Ryanair terrible treatment #Criminal #illegal sorry to my fab followers as I'm gonna tweet the shit out of this one."

In a statement, Ryanair said: "We sincerely apologise to all customers affected by these weather cancellations and disruptions, which are entirely beyond our control."

Temperatures plummeted to below freezing on Tuesday night (26 December), with fresh snow sweeping the country. The Midlands and northern England were some of the worst hit areas.

The AA reported 8,000 breakdowns on the roads, which marked a "significant" increase compared to normal Wednesday's in winter.

Thousands of homes in Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Scotland were left without power as the weather took some by surprise.