MORE than a third of British Airways flights from the UK’s busiest airport were cancelled yesterday in the second day of disruption.
A computer system failure caused disruption for thousands of travellers at Heathrow and Gatwick on Saturday, causing cancellations and delays.
Yesterday many more holidaymakers were grounded as the trouble continued.
The airline said long-haul services from Heathrow would fly, but with delays, and urged the public to check the status of their flights before making their way to the airport.
The warning came as some airport shops ran out of food, with people left sleeping on the floor.
BA chief executive Alex Cruz said: “I know this has been a horrible time for customers. We’re not there yet, but we are doing our very best to sort things out for you.”
Welsh international table tennis player Chloe Thomas had been due to fly to Germany for the World Table Tennis Championship in Dusseldorf at 7.30am yesterday.
She said there were “just queues everywhere” and her plane was cancelled at the last minute, adding: “We stood in the check-in queue, not moving, for about an hour then it came up on the screen that the flight was cancelled.
“To be honest I wasn’t surprised. We didn’t think we would make the flight because we were in the queue for such a long time.”
Thomas and her group joined “another queue the length of the airport” to get a number to rebook, but said: “It’s chaos, people are running about all over the place trying to rebook. There’s no-one to help, no leadership, it’s just mental. There are lots of people everywhere.There’s nowhere to sit, so people are just lying on the floor, sleeping on yoga mats.”
Those mats had reportedly been distributed with blankets by the airline for those stuck in the airport.
The trouble had an impact on the railways as people tried to make their way north by train. At London’s Kings Cross station, travellers queued out of the doors for the 9am train to Edinburgh.
Those who could not get on ran to the doors of the next service at 9.30am, but were met on boarding with a warning from the train guard that seats could not be guaranteed for all passengers.
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn was amongst those affected. A party spokesperson confirmed he had planned to fly to Glasgow for last night’s rally at the Old Fruitmarket, but instead had to travel by train after his appearance on ITV’s Peston on Sunday programme.
Meanwhile, passengers on one of the few flights taking off on Saturday later found their hold luggage had not made it onto the plane with them.
Terry Page, 28, from London, flew from Heathrow to Fort Worth in Texas, where he and “about 50” others were told they would have to wait until Monday before being reunited with their bags.
The airline was unable to say how many flights would be cancelled or for how much longer the disruption would continue.
It is facing the prospect of a huge number of compensation claims from for those who have been inconvenienced.
A spokesman said: “Our focus is on updating customers and doing what we can to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible.”
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