Much of southern Britain was besieged by heavy thunderstorms on Saturday evening into Sunday morning (May 26-27), during which some 15,000 to 20,000 lightning bolts struck, according to the Met Office.
At Stansted, lightning struck a refuelling depot, bringing the airport to a standstill.
Delays, diversions and cancellations continued for much of Sunday.
A spokesperson for Stansted said: “Due to an earlier lightning strike, the aircraft fuelling system was unavailable for a period this morning.
“Engineers have been on site and have now restored the system. However, flights may still be subject to diversion, delay or cancellation.
“We apologise for the inconvenience and advise all passengers to check with their airlines for their latest flight updates.”
In a tweet, the airport confirmed it was fully operational by 4.30pm on Monday (May 28).
Around 200 aircraft were reportedly delayed come Sunday morning, with a number of departures cancelled and arrivals diverted.
A number of passengers took to social media to vent their frustration, some reporting spending whole nights at the airport whole others were boarded only to sit waiting on the Tarmac for hours.
Ryanair and Jet2.com were among the airlines most severely affected.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said a number of flights were “regrettably” cancelled due to an “airport fuelling system failure” caused by the lightning strike.
“We apologise to all customers affected by these disruptions, which are entirely beyond our control,” they added.
A spokesperson for Jet2.com added it had teams on the ground “working hard” to look after customers and ensure they remained informed of the situation.
