At least 15,000 passengers have had their journey plans wrecked after easyJet cancelled more than 100 flights in 24 hours to and from its main base, London Gatwick.

Britain’s biggest budget airline is blaming thunderstorms on Sunday at the Sussex airport for the cancellations.

However, other carriers at Gatwick have grounded far fewer flights.

Gatwick is the busiest single-runway airport in the world, and therefore especially susceptible to weather-related disruption.

The easyJet cancellations on Sunday included two flights to and from Cyprus, departures and arrivals serving various Greek islands and links to other distant destinations such as Antalya in Turkey and the Canary Islands.

More than 60 flights were grounded on Sunday by the carrier. British Airways made a handful of cancellations.

Many flights were severely delayed, including a wait of more than six hours on easyJet from Gatwick to Paris CDG and to Barcelona. The longest delay is believed to have been on Tui: more than eight hours on a Larnaca flight. It was due to take off just after 9am but eventually left at 5.30pm.

In the early hours of Monday morning, passengers on dozens more flights due to depart started receiving notifications that their flights were grounded. They include multiple flights to the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, as well as links to Chania in Crete and Dalaman in Turkey.

Some passengers were offered alternative flights only on Thursday. Under European air passengers’ rights rules, travellers are entitled to be flown on the same day if another airline has seats available. But bookings on all carriers are very heavy.

A spokesperson for easyJet said: “Thunderstorms in the Gatwick area, which restricted the number of arrivals and departures on Sunday 11 June, unfortunately resulted in disruption at London Gatwick airport, including some diversions and cancellations, which is having a knock-on impact this morning as a number of aircraft are out of position.

“We are doing all possible to minimise the impact on our customers, providing those on cancelled flights with options to rebook or receive a refund as well as hotel accommodation and meals where required.

“The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority and while this is outside of our control, we would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused.”

Even reaching Gatwick is proving difficult due to urgent track repairs on the main line from London Victoria. The Gatwick Express has been suspended, but other trains are available.

Passengers are told: “Services running between these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised.”

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