Up to 16,000 people travelling on more than 150 flights to and from Stansted faced delays and cancellations. The airport's managing director, John Stent, said a limited service was operating, using part of the runway unaffected by the security operation surrounding the hijacked plane, which landed at 2am.
The airport authorities, who handle some 400 flights daily, cancelled all flights until 7am, when a limited departure service began operating.
Many flights were transferred to nearby Luton and Cambridge airports because aircraft were too large to use the shortened runway in use for much of the day. Hundreds of passengers on internal flights were transferred to Heathrow to British Airways services.
About 2,000 passengers, unaware of the hijacking, arrived at Stansted for departures early yesterday.
Mr Stent advised passengers planning to travel today to contact their airline before leaving home.
The Stansted authorities confirmed that 30 aircraft were stranded on the ground waiting to leave yesterday, causing disruption to about 150 flights.
