More than 360 Irish passengers arrived back in Dublin late last night after being stranded in Cyprus for more than 36 hours.
A total of 266 passengers arrived on a direct flight to Dublin at midnight; 95 arrived a half an hour later on a flight that stopped off in London's Gatwick airport.
Helios passenger Marie Tucker (70)
The Helios Airlines customers were due to leave Pathos Airport on a flight at 7am on Sunday, but it was cancelled without any reason given to the passengers.
The holidaymakers were transferred to a hotel and then on to Larnaca Airport where they were left waiting for a flight with little information provided to them, they said.
Helios grounded its fleet on Sunday just over a week after one of its planes crashed in Greece, killing all 121 passengers and crew aboard. The airline grounded all three of its planes pending examinations by independent experts.
Arriving home, 70-year-old Marie Tucker who had been holidaying with her husband Norman (75) said she would never return to the island.
She said they had been in the airport from 4.30am on Sunday morning. "The whole problem was they wouldn't let us out of the airport and they wouldn't give us any information, and there was no plane.
"There was nearly a riot in the airport yesterday and one of the women collapsed," she said.
A similar Helios aircraft to that involved in the fatal Greek crash had to be diverted from Luton airport near London to Stansted last Friday after the pilot feared a problem with the aircraft's flaps.
Additional reporting PA