My worst to date...
Land Salzburg @ 10:00 local: Starts snowing @ 10:15 when all pax disembarked. Continues snowing, more heavily. Inbound pax boarded @ 11:00 but SZG now experiencing intermittent runway closures: Expected departure 11:30. And then SZG ran out of de-iceing fluid - additional had to be driven in from Vienna (for chrissakes!)
Total delay 6 hours, with pax on board throughout (terminal too congested and would not allow them to disembark). No additional food on a/c and insufficient bar stock to maintain drinks/snacks throughout delay. IFE system u/s pending spares on that day only.
Obtained Commanders permission for pax to use mobile phones during delay: Most popular request was for phone number of airline MD. One man rang customer relations and then invited Commander and I to speak to them directly in order to "report" ourselves for "incompetence".
Not the longest delay by any means, but for both customers and crew, one of the least pleasant.
Ski pax - You gotta luv 'em!