Hundreds of easyJet flights in the UK have been either delayed or cancelled due to a huge technical failure.
Passengers hoping to fly with the airline have been left stranded after an issue with the carrier's systems prevented flights from taking off.
All flights set to take off between 1pm and 3pm today (26 May) have either been delayed for cancelled.
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Dozens of flights going to and from Bristol and Gatwick have been grounded as part of the tech problems, as have a number of flights at Manchester, Luton and Belfast.
Some of the routes cancelled include popular tourist destinations like Rhodes, Santorini, Antalya and Gran Canaria.
Writing on Twitter, one disappointed customer shared their experience.
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They said: "Oh EasyJet. It was all going so swimmingly.
"There we were, sat on board, buckled up, when every passenger got a txt alert that the flight had been cancelled.
"So now we're waiting for a train instead and £00s lighter of pocket & will be five hours later arriving."
Another blasted the airline, writing: "Absolutely disgraceful ! Flight cancelled 10mins before boarding. No support available in the airport or online."
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Those set to take off later this afternoon, however, are due to leave the tarmac as planned, though the backlog has caused further delays.
easyJet has apologised for the inconvenience caused.
A spokesperson for the airline said: "Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing IT systems issues which means that flights due to depart between 13:00 and 15:00 UK time today may be impacted.
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"Our team of IT specialists is working to restore the systems as soon as possible.
"We advise customers due to travel with us today to continue to check Flight Tracker to check the status of their flight before making their way to the airport.
"We apologise for the inconvenience caused and would like to thank customers for their patience as we work to resolve this as soon as possible."
However, despite the apologies, customers looking for compensation have been told that this won't be happening.
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Passengers were told that the IT systems failure was 'outside of our control and is considered to be an extraordinary circumstance'.
Dominic Smithers