BA failure causes bank holiday chaos

TRAVEL: Stranded holidaymakers spent the night on yoga mats on airport floors as disruption from the British Airways system failure continued yesterday.

BA grounded all planes from Gatwick and Heathrow on Saturday, causing chaos at the start of the school half-term and bank holiday weekend.

STRANDED HOLIDAYMAKERS spent the night on yoga mats on airport floors as disruption from the British Airways system failure continued into a second day.

BA grounded all planes from Gatwick and Heathrow on Saturday, causing chaos for thousands at the start of the school halfterm and bank holiday weekend.

The disruption continued yesterday, with dozens of Heathrow services cancelled and passengers warned not to go to the airport without rebooking or checking their flight status.

Welsh international table tennis player Chloe Thomas arrived on Sunday around four hours before her 7.30am flight to Germany for the World Table Tennis Championship in Dusseldorf.

She said there were “just queues everywhere” and her plane was cancelled at the last minute.

“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,” she said.

“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.”

After finding out they would not be departing for Dusseldorf as planned, the group joined “another queue the length of the airport” to get a number to rebook.

Airport staff had handed out the yoga mats, as well as thin blankets, for people who were stuck there overnight, she added.

The problem has been caused by a worldwide systems failure, which BA said is believed to have been caused by a power supply issue.

Passengers lucky enough to be aboard 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, Texas, where he and “about 50” others were told they would have to wait until Monday before being reunited with their bags.

Travellers were warned to check the airline’s website and Twitter account for updates before setting off for Gatwick or Heathrow.

BA chief executive Alex Cruz said the airline was “extremely sorry” for the “huge inconvenience” suffered by customers, especially families heading on half-term holidays.

BA said it is aiming to operate a “near-normal schedule” at Gatwick and the “majority of services” from Heathrow.

Mr Cruz said in a statement yesterday afternoon that many of the systems are back up but the knock-on effect is continuing.

He warned passengers that the BA Heathrow terminals were “very congested” and that people would not be let into Terminal 5 until 90 minutes before the scheduled departure time of their flights.

Anyone who had their plane cancelled can rebook until the end of November or have a full refund, he added.

He apologised again for the “horrible time” and “very trying experiences” customers have been through.

There were dozens of cancellations at Heathrow yesterday morning and delays of around 30 minutes to their flights from Gatwick.

Experts predict the knock-on effect could continue for several days and BA is facing huge compensation costs.

The glitch is believed to have been caused by a “power supply issue” and there is no evidence of a cyber attack, the airline said.

There were issues with its online check-in systems in September and July last year, causing severe delays for passengers.

We stood in the check-in queue not moving for about an hour. Chloe Thomas, Welsh international table tennis player.