Hundreds of Aer Lingus trans-Atlantic passengers were delayed in Dublin, Shannon and New York last night after two of the airline's planes were damaged by a freak gust of wind at Dublin Airport on Saturday.
The passengers in Dublin and Shannon were due to have left for the US on Saturday.
Aer Lingus offered hotel accommodation to the delayed passengers - 150 in Dublin and 450 at Shannon.
A spokeswoman said that all these passengers would be accommodated on flights today.
However, today's Aer Lingus flight EI125, from Shannon via Dublin to Chicago, has been cancelled. Customers holding confirmed reservations on this flight should contact the Aer Lingus helpline on (01) 8868844. All passengers affected would be accommodated on flights tomorrow, the spokeswoman said.
She said that the airline had made every effort to hire more aircraft, but had experienced great difficulties due to the holiday season. She denied reports that the airline had not kept passengers informed after the two planes were damaged on Saturday, and said passengers had been accommodated at hotels.
She said that the company apologised to its customers for the inconvenience caused. The airline confirmed it was doing everything possible to re-accommodate passengers who have been disrupted by the cancellations.
The disruption was caused by the cancellation of six Aer Lingus flights. The storm damage affected the two aircraft and affected flights to and from New York, Boston, Dublin and Shannon.
Last night the passengers still remained at Shannon where they had been since Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, in New York 600 passengers were awaiting flights to Ireland.
Altogether 600 passengers due to leave Dublin for the US on Saturday departed for New York and Boston yesterday morning. They had been accommodated overnight in several Dublin hotels.
Aer Lingus has confirmed that hotel accommodation had to be found last night for 150 passengers in Dublin, 450 at Shannon, including 220 from Saturday night, and a further 600 travellers in New York.
As a result of the damage to the two Airbus A330 aircraft, flights to New York were cancelled on Saturday and Sunday while almost 2,000 passengers in all were inconvenienced.
It has now emerged that one of the aircraft damaged should not have been at Dublin, but had been delayed because of a lightning strike by Aer Lingus staff at Shannon allegedly "provoked" by the company.The spokeswoman confirmed that one of the damaged aircraft was due to travel to the US via Shannon, but was delayed at Dublin because of the "unofficial strike action at Shannon". She denied however that the airline "provoked" staff at Shannon by deciding to reduce the number of check-in desks at the airport from 12 to 10.