Thousands of air passengers who were refused compensation by airlines because a plane had an "extraordinary" technical fault could benefit from a court ruling.

Consumer groups and lawyers hailed a ruling by the European Court of Justice in the case of a Dutch woman, whose efforts to claim money from KLM for a flight delay of 29 hours were rebuffed by the airline.

The decision sought to clarify what constituted "extraordinary circumstances" following a string of faults with the plane.

KLM argued that spontaneous technical issues meant passengers were not entitled to cash but the court said "problems may be classified as 'extraordinary' only if they relate to an event which is not inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier concerned."

The ruling, which applies EU-wide, matches a judgment by the UK's Supreme Court last year.

The law allows each passenger on a EU flight to claim up to €600 (£437) if an aircraft is delayed by at least three hours, or cancelled.

Martin Lewis, the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: "The law is clear - the law has always been clear - that you are allowed to claim for a flight delay if it was a technical fault and only in genuinely extraordinary circumstances is there an exemption.

"The problem is that even though we've now had it cleared up by the Supreme Court in the UK and the European Court of Justice, my concern is some of the airlines will continue to try and find excuses to not pay people.

"This has to stop."

A law firm specialising in flight delay claims, Bott & Co, told Sky News that approximately 15,000 of its clients stood to benefit from the latest ruling.

It added that it expected to achieve compensation for them worth more than £4.5m.

(Sky News)