British Airways axes hundreds more flights leaving 100,000 stranded

Hundreds of British Airways flights to and from Heathrow have now been cancelled as the airline battles to restore its operations at its main base. This has left thousands more passengers added to the numbers stranded by BA’s difficulties, with an estimated 100,000 now out of position.

Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds-Bradford and Newcastle are the UK routes selected for further cancellations. Many European destinations which have already seen multiple groundings on Sunday and Monday have been selected for further flight cancellations, including Dublin, Berlin and Rome.

By 6pm on Monday, well over 300 BA departures and arrivals at Heathrow had been grounded, a similar number to those cancelled on Sunday. Many outbound long-haul services were axed, including five to New York alone plus departures to Mumbai, Rio, Beijing and Tokyo.

At Terminal 5, frustrations increased as wave after wave of departures were cancelled during the day. Mike, a passenger from Dubai to Glasgow, was due to arrive in the Scottish city at 9am on Monday. Instead, he faced a five-hour delay from the Gulf airport plus a three-hour wait on arrival for a gate to accept the aircraft.

“We then came into the airport, there was nobody to speak to, the queues were miles long,” he told The Independent. “This morning, the queues are even longer, so I’m now looking at trying to get a train back to Glasgow. I’m going to get back 36, 40 hours after I was supposed to.”

Similar stories emerged from a wide range of airports where British Airways passengers were stranded.

Sarah Griffiths reported: “My parents are still stuck at Pisa airport from Sunday evening. A BA rep finally appeared yesterday evening and they were taken to a hotel. This morning they were told the first flight available would be on Tuesday, but then they were told to be at reception in one hour's time."

They eventually flew out on flight that had been delayed by seven hours.

Other relatively fortunate arriving passengers included planeloads from Copenhagen, St Petersburg and Mumbai, who eventually arrived 24 hours late. The flight from India had spent the night at Frankfurt. Skiers heading for Innsbruck were heartened when their aircraft took off for the Tyrol, but then it diverted to Munich because of bad weather at the Austrian airport.

Services to Amsterdam, Brussels and Nice were also severely disrupted by wintry conditions.

A spokesperson said: “We are very sorry that customers continue to suffer from the disruption to flights at Heathrow caused by the severe weather conditions that have affected airports across northern Europe.

“Time spent on de-icing aircraft to ensure safe operation plus air traffic control restrictions and the repositioning of aircraft and crews from yesterday have led to further cancellations and delays today.

“We understand how frustrating this experience is for customers and we are offering refunds for those who no longer wish to travel from Heathrow today or tomorrow regardless of whether their flight is cancelled or not.

“We are also offering the opportunity for anyone not wishing to travel today or tomorrow to rebook their flight up until 18 December.”

Rumour circulated on social media suggesting that British Airways had run out of de-icing fluid, but that was flatly denied by the airline.

BA is finding alternative routes with other carriers, as it is obliged to do under EU passengers’ rights rules.

“Our customer service teams are proactively offering flights to customers with dozens of airlines that we have agreements with,” said the airline’s spokesperson. “Naturally it is easiest for us to do that with partner airlines such as Iberia and American but the list goes much further than that.”

Alex Neill of the consumer magazine Which? said: “We welcome BA confirming to us that it will rebook passengers on alternative flights and, importantly, that this will include booking seats with other airlines so that passengers can travel as soon as possible.

“This is yet more proof of why automatic compensation needs to be introduced.”

British Airways has declined to say whether disrupted passengers will be entitled to cash payments of between €250 and €600 under European rules, saying only: “We always meet our obligations under EU261. Each flight will be looked at on a case by case basis.”