Fuelling glitch causes havoc at Lisbon Airport

Thousands of angry passengers who were stranded at Lisbon's international airport after a refuelling system failure on Wednesday were finally able to travel on Thursday.

The passengers, as a result, had to sleep on the floor and on luggage belts.

Portugal's ANA airport management company said the refuelling system resumed its normal operation soon after midnight, allowing planes to take off after 64 flight cancellations and 322 delays.

The airport timetable still showed delays on most flights early on Thursday afternoon, but most did not exceed an hour. ANA said the airport had resumed normal operations.

Lisbon has been experiencing a tourism boom for the past few years and the season is in full swing by May.

Passenger Romane Rouffart said she had to wait for her flight for 18 hours at the airport and that passengers on her Ryanair flight had been treated "like dogs".

"That's the jungle over here and the policemen were really stressful," she said.

During the night, passengers who had boarded one flight refused to leave the plane. This prompted the crew to turn on the heating to force the passengers out and called the police.

Passengers reported that the most affected flights were those operated by Portugal's flagship carrier TAP and Irish budget airline Ryanair.