I don't think this is that unusual an occurence. Happened to us in Rome in June.
Turned up at check in - told the flight was on time (it hadn't left UK!!) and told to go through to departures. The screen said that it was on time though 2 Stansted deps. were running hours late. Then within a period of 30 minutes it showed a 1 hour delay for PWK then a 3 hour delay then 'cancelled'. No PA, no Ryanair staff to explain - no reason given. Same thing for the Paris flight.
After a near riot at the ticket desk passengers were offered the option of a refund or a flight to Stansted. One elderly travel organiser had a group of 20 pensioners all over seventy and 3 in wheelchairs - hadn't a clue what he was going to do at 10.30pm with no more buses back to Rome.
We took the Stansted option and phoned a colleague in the UK to organise tickets on Ryanair stansted -prestwick - cost £43 each.
When we got to Stansted a few hours later, we saw 4 women who'd also taken the same route opton from Rome, totally distraught at the Ryanair ticket desk after being told that a flight onwards to Prestwick would now cost £285 each!!
I later learned, through a friend, that the reason for the cancellation was that the 'wind had changed at Ciampino Airport' and that a different runway was in use which restricted the number of take-offs per hour.
Interestingly enough, Easyjet pax at the same airport were bussed to Fiumicino airport a few miles away. Obviously Ryanair would not pay the presumably higher landing fee.
Business or not, it's a hell of a way to treat human beings!!