Travellers at London's Heathrow Airport are continuing to be affected by long delays caused by a British Airways technical issue.
On Wednesday, the airline was forced to cancel and postpone flights, citing a technical problem.
Despite the airline saying the fault had affected its operations for “a short time” and was resolved shortly before 5.30pm, the vast majority of flights on the airline’s live tracker were shown as departing late or cancelled.
On Thursday, many frustrated passengers continued to use social media to vent their frustration over the long delays.
The airline responded to complaints by saying it was dealing with “high call volumes".
“We’re sorry you’re still waiting and appreciate your patience,” it tweeted.
“Customer Relations haven’t forgotten about your case. They have very high volumes, which means they’re taking longer than they’d like to respond to you. They’re doing all they can to be in touch as soon as possible.”
One passenger currently stranded at Heathrow said it will be two days before she is provided with a new flight.
Michelle Heinrich, a student and translator from Germany who lives in Coventry, had been due to fly to Germany at 5.40pm on Wednesday. She said problems had started as early as 2.40pm when passengers tried to check in and drop bags off.
When the gate number was set to be announced, passengers were instead told the flight was delayed by two hours. That time came and went. At about 9pm, a gate number was finally announced. Then, as passengers waited to board, they were told the flight had been cancelled.
Ms Heinrich said there was “silence and confusion” among passengers.
“I’m stranded at Heathrow with no accommodation and a flight two days away. I’ve been given a food voucher but I’m not sure what’s going to happen today,” Ms Heinrich said.
“It’s another day and night before I can fly. British Airways have not been communicating with us.”
She added that the only communication from the airline had come half an hour after her flight was cancelled — to say the flight was not going ahead.
The airline has apologised for the issue and said it “deeply regretted” being forced to cancel flights on Wednesday evening.
Disruption caused by British Airways’ repeated IT meltdowns is being exacerbated by staff shortages, an industry expert claimed.
Aviation consultant John Strickland, of JLS Consulting, said the airline is left “floundering” when it faces problems such as those at Heathrow on Wednesday.
Mr Strickland said: “They seem to have staff shortage issues coming out of the pandemic, and I know definitely that’s something which is going to be more widespread with airlines because of the number of people who were let go.
“With what happened (on Wednesday), maybe if that extra issue wasn’t there in the background, maybe less flights would have been delayed or ultimately cancelled.
“Once the dominoes start to fall, if your manpower is not up to proper planned establishment then you’re really floundering even more.”
He said the carrier is “in the process” of improving its IT systems, but “you just can’t click your fingers and have it all change overnight”.
The carrier has suffered several IT failures in recent years.
Mr Strickland said these give the impression that “they aren’t in control of their IT and they are worse” than their rivals, whereas the “reality” is that other legacy carriers such as Air France and KLM have “largely similar arcane systems that date back decades”.
He explained that low-cost carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair are “better placed” because their systems are more modern due be them being younger companies, and they have simpler operations without multiple cabin classes or a sizeable proportion of passengers taking connecting flights.
Decades of flight from Heathrow - in pictures
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Heathrow Airport in London, the UK's busiest, has been a travel hub for decades. Here The National takes a look back at Heathrow through the years. All photos: Getty Images -
An Airco De Havilland biplane of the British airline, Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, about to leave on the company’s inaugural flight from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, later known as Heathrow, to Le Bourget, Paris, in August 1919 -
Waterlogged runways at London Airport - Heathrow's original name - one week before it became Britain's main aerial gateway to the US in 1946 -
The new BOAC maintenance headquarters at London Airport circa 1955 -
The air traffic control room at the airport's new terminal in 1955 -
US film star Marilyn Monroe with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, after arriving at the airport in July 1956 -
An aerial view showing the runways in 1958 -
The arrivals and departures board in 1960 -
A new airport gift shop, selling items by Chanel, Wedgwood and Pringle of Scotland, in 1961 -
The Queen's Building and the No. 1 Building Europa at Heathrow in 1965 -
The Beatles leave Heathrow for Salzburg in Austria, to resume filming of the movie Help!, in 1965 -
Passenger terminal gates at Heathrow in 1966 -
Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC, holding up a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow in 1969 -
An aerial view of Heathrow in 1970 -
Passengers boarding the first BOAC Jumbo Jet 747 used for a commercial flight, from London Heathrow to New York, in 1971 -
Passengers going through the departure lounge at Heathrow in 1973 -
Concorde takes off from Heathrow on her first commercial flight for British Airways in 1976 -
Men at work finalising the Heathrow Central underground station before its opening in 1977 -
Queen Elizabeth II passing though the Tube gates at Heathrow Central station on its opening in 1977 -
An aerial view of Heathrow in 1978 -
Passengers waiting near a departures board in 1979 -
Holidaymakers waiting in the departure lounge at Terminal 3 of Heathrow in 1981 -
British Airways employees protesting at Heathrow in 1984 -
Passengers and staff observe a silence in Heathrow's Terminal One to mark the beginning of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 -
Rower Steve Redgrave at Heathrow with daughters Sophie and Natalie and son Zak after returning from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with his gold medal -
Spectators watch the last Concorde land at Heathrow in 2003 -
Fans surround the coach carrying the England rugby team at Heathrow, as they arrived from Sydney after winning the World Cup in 2003 -
Heathrow's Terminal 2 in 2004 -
Passengers queue to check in at Terminal 1 of Heathrow Airport during the Christmas 2006 and New Year period -
Passengers wait at Terminal 1 on August 10, 2006, after airport security was raised to critical when a terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US was disrupted by police -
Planes queueing to take off at Heathrow in 2007 -
The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow in 2008 -
Aircraft at Heathrow Airport in front of the London skyline in 2016 -
Members of Team GB arrive from Rio de Janeiro at Heathrow, after returning from the 2016 Olympics, which saw Great Britain's strongest performance at the Games in over a century -
A composite photo shows planes taking off from Heathrow in November 2016. Forty-two planes were captured between 10.17am and 11.17am and a montage was created from those single images -
Items are arranged during an auction preview at Heathrow in 2018. The contents of Terminal 1, which closed in 2015, were being sold -
An airline passenger wearing a face mask pushes her bags through Heathrow's Terminal 5 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 -
British Airways employees welcome Olympians returning from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 -
Travellers wait in a long queue to pass through the security check in 2022
Milena Franke, a student from Germany who is currently doing her Erasmus year abroad in Aberdeen, said she was delayed for hours trying to fly from Heathrow to Aberdeen.
“I‘ve been travelling from Germany to London Heathrow today with the initial plan of travelling further to Aberdeen,” she said.
“However, after landing in Heathrow around 9am, my flight to Aberdeen got cancelled right before I was supposed to walk to my gate.
“As I didn‘t know who to approach directly, I spent most of my time waiting for someone from the BA customer service hoping to receive further details but not a single person offered help.
“Instead, I got advised to rebook my flight and select the next one leaving in the evening. However, this flight also got cancelled. It has been a terrifying experience, eventually resulting in the fact that I am now staying in a hotel with a slight hope of finally getting to travel tomorrow.”
In late February, the airline was forced to cancel all short-haul flights from Heathrow for several hours due to a hardware problem.
The trouble for Heathrow and BA is the latest in a string of technical problems that have caused patience-busting queues, cancellations and delays.
“A technical issue which affected British Airways this afternoon has now been resolved,” Heathrow Airport said.
“We’re working with our airport partners to assist passengers whose journeys have been disrupted and have deployed additional resource in our terminals.
“Passengers are still advised to check their flight status with British Airways before travelling to the airport due to a number of resulting cancellations.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
