Closure of the main runway and high cross-winds caused flight cancellations and delays at Dublin Airport throughout yesterday.
Passengers experienced long delays, and a number of flights were diverted because of high winds to Cork, Shannon and Belfast Airports.
The airport was closed for 50 minutes after a Delta Airlines aircraft, amid rain and high winds, veered off the runway on landing.
Flight 129 had arrived from Atlanta at 8.04 a.m.When it landed it overshot the runway and stopped in the grassland which was soggy from the continuous rain.
The 167 passengers and 14 crew were evacuated from the aircraft, but nobody was injured.
Full Aer Rianta emergency services were put into operation. It took some time to evacuate the passengers and crew as the aircraft steps sank into the mud.
Mats had to be put down before the steps were secure and everybody was helped from the aircraft. An Aer Rianta spokeswoman said that the cause of the incident was unknown but the air accident investigation unit had been called in.
A Delta spokeswoman said they would not be able to say what had caused the accident until air accident investigators had examined the scene."Nobody was injured in the incident and the safety of the passengers was the priority particularly given the bad conditions," she said.
The aircraft remained last night 30 feet off the runway. A spokeswoman for Aer Rianta said the runway would stay closed until the aircraft was removed, which was likely to occur today.
Passengers who were travelling on to Shannon were accommodated on other flights. The return flight to Atlanta was cancelled and passengers were rerouted.
One passenger, Ms Sharon Kennedy, criticised the airline for not giving passengers or family members waiting in the terminal information.
She claimed no procedures were gone though and the airline staff did not update them.
"The plane landed at 8.05 a.m. but we didn't get off until 11.30 a.m.," she said.
Their families waiting in the arrivals hall thought they had crashed as they were not told anything, she said.
"They took us the Liam Lawlor way to avoid us talking to reporters," Ms Kennedy said.
Up to 50,000 passengers were scheduled to pass through the airport yesterday. However, not all of these travellers were affected, said Aer Rianta.
Yesterday evening aircraft were arriving and departing, said Aer Rianta, and the airlines were hopeful the schedules would be returning to normal by last night.
A spokeswoman for Ryanair said eight out of 220 of the company's flights were cancelled yesterday "Passengers were re-accommodated on the next available flight or offered a full refund," she said.
The company's flights would hopefully be back on schedule today, she said, and passengers were advised to check in as normal.
Aircraft used the airport's second runway yesterday, but high cross-winds prevented many from departing.
Aer Rianta was yesterday advising passengers to contact their individual airlines to check their flights.