On one of the busiest weekends of the year, an estimated 25,000 passengers have had their travel plans wrecked by mass flight cancellations on British Airways.
More than 100 flights were grounded on Friday, with the blame placed on “adverse weather conditions in London”.
About three-quarters of Friday’s BA cancellations were at London Heathrow, including holiday flights to and from holiday destinations such as Larnaca in Cyprus and the Spanish islands of Ibiza and Mallorca.
At London City, services to and from Barcelona, Florence and Malaga were among 22 cancellations.
To add to the many thousands of passengers who woke up where they did not expect to be on Saturday morning, British Airways has cancelled at least 60 more flights in and out of Heathrow.
According to data from the airline’s website, six flights serving Barcelona are cancelled, together with four to and from both Dublin and Rome. Departures to and from Mediterranean locations including Athens, Ibiza, Naples, Palma, and Venice, are grounded.
In addition, at least one flight that had been delayed overnight – from Heathrow to Hamburg – was cancelled on Saturday morning.
The performer Emma Lawton wrote on X: “Appalled at the service from British Airways this morning.
“They cancelled our flight with minimum notice, an hour later a message saying they’ve booked us on a later flight which didn’t exist and the number we were given says they’re too busy to talk.
“I’m due to give a talk first thing in the morning in Madrid which is now seeming impossible. No seats available on any other flights.”
Scammers have been trying to capitalise on the chaos, with a fake X account calling itself “British Airways Support Team” asking Ms Lawton to provide her details.
Between London and mainland Europe, most flights are heavily booked, meaning space is not available on other British Airways flights for many of the stranded passengers.
One traveller from Marseille to Heathrow on Friday had an afternoon flight to London cancelled. She was rebooked on a later BA flight, but that too was grounded.
British Airways rebooked her on a Marseille-Frankfurt flight on Lufthansa on Saturday, with a connection to Heathrow, which would have meant she would have arrived 24 hours late in London. BA did not offer a hotel, as it is obliged to do under European air passengers’ rights rules.
Instead, the passenger bought a new ticket with Ryanair on Friday evening. Calling the British Airways customer service line to request a refund took almost an hour.
BA has not so so far responded to requests from The Independent for comment.
According to data on Flightradar24, no other airline has cancelled any European flights to and from Heathrow on Saturday.
The aviation analyst, Cirium, had predicted Friday would be the busiest day of the year for flights from UK airports, but the widespread cancellations mean a record is unlikely to have been set.