Stranded passengers scuffled with security staff at an airport in Yunnan Province yesterday morning after an airline failed to provide food and accommodation while flights were delayed overnight.

Some of the 170 stranded passengers fought with airport police, smashing offices with chairs and causing chaos at the airport in Kunming, the provincial capital, about 8am.

Peace had been restored by 11am and all the stranded passengers left Kunming on two separate rescheduled flights, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ai Qingping, a duty manager at the Kunming office of China Southern Airlines, told Xinhua they had arranged two new flights - one for Guiyang, the other for Changsha - for the stranded passengers and had promised to pay each person 100 yuan (US$15) as compensation for the delay.

The rescheduled flight for Guiyang reportedly left at 11am, while the one for Changsha took off about 2:27pm.

Of the 130 passengers destined for Changsha, 40 or so at first refused to board the rescheduled flight because their demands had not been met.

These included compensation of 600 yuan to 1,000 yuan, plus an apology from the airline company.

Alternatively, some wanted the airline to run an apology in major media outlets in Kunming and Changsha and pay 1 yuan to each customer.

After negotiations, China Southern staff and those customers eventually reached a consensus over the rescheduled flight, Xinhua said. China Southern declined to disclose details of the agreed terms.

Li Jinsong, a representative of the stranded passengers from Changsha, told Xinhua they had been promised by China Southern that they would be compensated upon arrival in Changsha if they boarded the plane.

The passengers were said to have waited at the terminal since 9:40pm on Monday after China Southern Airlines notified them that their flights - two leaving from Kunming to Guiyang in Guizhou Province and one to Changsha in Hunan Province - were delayed because of bad weather.

The passengers stayed in the airport overnight and said China Southern had offered them neither food nor accommodation.