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Heathrow passengers face hours of delays as airport hit by staff shortages and strong winds

At least 60 flights have been cancelled to and from britain’s busiest airport, with two transatlantic flights diverted, article bookmarked.

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Thousands of passengers travelling to or from Heathrow Airport have had flights cancelled or diverted, or are facing long flight delays after staff absences and high winds led to air traffic control restrictions being imposed.

More than 30 departing flights have been cancelled since 9am, with at least 28 arrivals grounded, analysis by The Independent found. At least 10,000 passengers are thought to be affected.

Three-quarters of those cancelled have been British Airways flights to and from short-haul destinations including Madrid, Milan, Berlin and Oslo.

Aer Lingus, Brussels Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, SAS and Swiss also canceled flights from and to their hubs.

Air traffic control (ATC) restrictions were imposed early on Sunday morning, with staff shortage partly responsible. It follows large-scale cancellations at Gatwick in September due to an outbreak of Covid among controllers working in the tower.

Just 25 flights per hour were permitted to arrive earlier on Sunday, The Independent was told. Normally 40-45 aircraft can land each hour.

“Due to short notice staff absence in the tower and strong winds at Heathrow, temporary ATC restrictions are currently in place,” a spokesperson for air traffic control provider Nats said.

“We are working hard to minimise disruption, working closely with Heathrow airport and airlines. Passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline. Restrictions of this sort are only ever applied to ensure safety and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

All restrictions have now been lifted, but disruption continues. Two planeloads of BA passengers touched down at other London airports. The service from Baltimore went to Stansted, while the arrival from Chicago circled above Bristol for about 30 minutes before diverting to Gatwick.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Due to strong wind and staff absence in air traffic control, temporary air traffic control restrictions were implemented at Heathrow earlier today.

“ATC continue to implement temporary regulation due to the weather conditions this afternoon.

“We want to reassure passengers that our colleagues are working in close collaboration with our airline and air traffic control partners to get them safely on their journeys as quickly as possible. We encourage passengers to check with their airline for the latest information.”

Despite the cancellations only affecting short-haul flights, many passengers complained of having missed connections further afield.

“We’ve been held on the tarmac at MCR [Manchester] Airport because Heathrow accepting reduced number of flights,” one passenger wrote on Twitter/X.

“Not expected to depart for a further 2 hours, which means missing our transfer to New York. My 40th birthday celebration is turning disastrous.”

The flight operated three hours late.

A British Airways spokesperson said: “Air traffic control restrictions imposed on all airlines at London Heathrow mean we’ve had to make some adjustments to our short-haul schedule. We’ve contacted affected customers to apologise and offer them rebooking options or a full refund.”

The airline said most customers on cancelled flights should still be able to reach their destination today, however for some the next available flight would be on Monday.

Many other connecting passengers faced long waits after flights to key Continental hubs including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Munich were grounded.

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BA flight chaos at Heathrow airport ahead of bank holiday weekend

At least 50 British Airlines services cancelled on Thursday due to technical problems and passengers warned of further delays on Friday

A “technical issue” has left British Airways passengers facing the possibility of further delayed or cancelled flights at Heathrow heading into Friday and the bank holiday weekend.

At least 50 BA flights from the airport were cancelled on Thursday afternoon, while a large number of inbound flights were delayed for more than an hour.

Some passengers due to depart on Friday evening were notified their flights were delayed. The airline said passengers should check their flight status before going to the airport on Friday.

A statement from British Airways released just before 10pm on Thursday said: “We’re aware of a technical issue, which we have been working hard to fix … Due to high call volumes please only contact us if you’re due to travel in the next 48 hours.”

A tweet from British Airways at 11.27pm on Thursday said systems were back up and running but there might still be intermittent issues.

The airline said: “While the majority of our flights have continued to operate [on Thursday], we have had to cancel a number of Heathrow flights due to a technical issue.

“Affected customers have been contacted and offered options, including a refund or rebooking to an alternative flight with us or another carrier. We are extremely sorry to our customers for the inconvenience caused.”

On Thursday queues of passengers seeking assistance formed at Heathrow, with some also unable to check in online. The airline mainly cancelled flights to destinations with multiple departures to allow customers to travel.

One Twitter user, who was at the airport around 7pm, said: “Almost all BA flights from LHR T5 cancelled tonight. No info. About 4 people on BA desks trying to deal with the chaos. Come on BA you can do better than this. You are supposed to be the UK’s flagship.”

The disruption came as the airline and airport were working to minimise the fallout from the first day of a three-day strike by security guards at Heathrow who are members of the Unite union. Friday is expected to be the busiest day overall in the UK for departing flights since 2019, according to data from analysts Cirium.

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The IT issue is unrelated to the strikes, with Heathrow saying its contingency plans had kept security queues flowing across the airport.

BA has suffered a number of IT failures, including one in December that led to a number of long-haul cancellations. Its most notorious IT incident also occurred at the start of a May half-term getaway, in 2017, when tens of thousands of passengers were stranded after its systems were accidentally turned off.

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Heathrow airport slaps caps on departing passenger numbers as travel chaos continues

Britain's busiest airport says it's setting a daily limit of 100,000 departing passengers.

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London's Heathrow Airport asked airlines to stop selling tickets for summer departures on Tuesday, after it capped the number of passengers flying from the hub at 100,000 a day in an effort to quell travel chaos caused by soaring demand and staff shortages.

Britain's busiest airport said Tuesday that it's setting a limit of 100,000 departing passengers that it can handle each day through Sept. 11. The restriction is likely to result in more cancelled flights even after airlines already slashed thousands of flights from their summer schedules. 

U.K. aviation authorities demanded that airlines ensure they can operate without disruption over the summer, with carriers not punished for not using their valuable takeoff and landing slots.

Even with that allowance, Heathrow, which had warned a day earlier that it may ask airlines to cut flights further, said it still expected more passengers than airport ground staff could handle.

• Airport nightmares won't end this summer, experts say
• More flights are scheduled in the U.S. than air traffic control can handle, say authorities

"Some airlines have taken significant action, but others have not, and we believe that further action is needed now to ensure passengers have a safe and reliable journey," Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said in an open letter to passengers.

Airlines are expected to operate flights over the summer with an overall daily capacity of 104,000 seats, or 4,000 more than Heathrow can handle, the airport said. Only about 1,500 of these daily seats have been sold to passengers.

"So we are asking our airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers," Holland-Kaye said.

Airlines, airports overwhelmed by demand boom

Booming demand for summer travel after two years of COVID-19 travel restrictions have overwhelmed European airlines and airports that had laid off tens of thousands of pilots, cabin crew, check-in staff, ground crew and baggage handlers amid the depths of the pandemic.

Heathrow has said it started a recruiting drive in November and expects security staffing to be back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of July.

"However, there are some critical functions in the airport which are still significantly under-resourced, in particular ground handlers, who are contracted by airlines to provide check-in staff, load and unload bags and turnaround aircraft," making it a "significant constraint" to overall capacity, Holland-Kaye said.

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Two planes collide on the ground at London’s Heathrow Airport

Two Boeing airplanes collided on the ground at London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday.

An empty Virgin Atlantic jet was being towed from a stand when its wingtip clipped a parked British Airways airliner, the airline said.

No passengers were injured at the crash, and operations at the UK’s busiest airport were not affected.

“Our aircraft is being assessed by our engineering teams and we have provided an alternative aircraft to limit the impact on our customers,” British Airways said in a statement.

Virgin Atlantic said its  empty Boeing 787-9  had just landed and was being towed to another part of the airfield when the incident happened at Terminal 3.

“We’ve commenced a full and thorough investigation and our engineering teams are performing maintenance checks on the aircraft, which for now has been taken out of service,” a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said.

The airline said there would be no disruption to its flight schedule.

Heathrow said it was working with emergency services and the two airlines in response to the incident.

Alex Whittles, a 47-year-old private pilot who witnessed the crash,  told The Telegraph  that the collision appeared inevitable as he watched.

 “There was an empty Virgin 787 being pushed back by a tug, but the tug seemed to get the angle completely wrong and it was obvious they were about to clip the British Airways plane,” he told the paper.

“That’s why I was watching so closely – and then I saw the crash.”

Whittles added that emergency crews were “incredibly quick” to respond.

“There was no fire or other concern — they just seemed to be making a plan on how to best detangle them without causing further damage to either plane,” he said.

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Travel Disruption: Heathrow flight disruptions today and advice on delays and cancellations

If you’re experiencing Heathrow delays or your flight is impacted by severe weather or industrial action, there are a few things you’ll need to know.

The main information contact number for Heathrow Airport is: 0844 335 1801 *. If you are using a textphone, please use: 0844 571 7410 *

Use our Compensation Calculator to find out what you could be entitled to in compensation from your airline.

Bear in mind, any flights delayed for less than 3 hours are unlikely to provide any compensation and you’ll have to contact your travel insurance provider or the airline separately to make a claim.

Here’s our guide to understanding your compensation results.

You’re not always guaranteed a pay-out if your flight is delayed, there’s a number of factors that can cause airlines and airports to delay your flight. Essentially, it depends on how long you’ve been delayed and why you were delayed. Whether it’s strike action, bad weather such as snow and fog, or traffic control issues, different causes mean different compensation brackets for you as the passenger.

How can I get compensation from my travel insurance provider?

All travel insurance policies are different and offer different levels of cover. It is best you contact your insurance provider or read the policy wording document on their website to find out how much compensation you are entitled to if your flights are cancelled or delayed.

The airline has a legal obligation to provide you with a flight to your destination as your ticket is a contract with them, despite any Heathrow disruptions today or tomorrow. If there are no later flights available you should ask the airline to book you a flight from another airport and pay for your transport to that airport. If this is not an option then you should consider alternative modes of transport and apply to have your ticket refunded.

There are three options if you’re trying to get around Europe without flying.

For example, if you’re eager to get away, you could hire a car and drive to your destination. Some car hire providers will let you drive your hired vehicle across Europe and drop it off in your destination country. Bear in mind, companies can sometimes charge extra for letting you take the car across country borders and charge you for crossing back again.

Other choices are public transport links. Another mode of transport would be to take the ferry if you are trying to get to Europe or, if you’re trying to get to France or Belgium, you could try and take the Eurostar. The Eurostar is a train which travels from London St Pancras train station to Paris and Brussels.

However, just because London Heathrow isn’t flying, doesn’t mean the rest of the UK isn’t. So if you’re going further afield than Europe, say you’re flying to Bali or New York, local ferries and the Eurostar won’t really help you. Therefore, if you are travelling internationally and you cannot get a flight with your airline from Heathrow airport you should try and get a flight from any airport within the UK.

If there is no alternative available, your airline should provide you with a refund for your disrupted flight within seven days.

Here are some of Heathrow’s biggest airlines with link to their customer service lines and how to access compensation for your delayed flights:

0344 493 0787

0203 540 8063

0345 601 09 56

01293 496883

Top tips when talking to the airline’s customer services provider about your flight delay:

• Where possible, call them ahead of time or check their website or social media for updates. Check your booking confirmation to double-check which airline you are flying with and give them a call for the latest update or what the next steps are. It is best to check flight details with your airline as soon as possible ; if your flight is cancelled you may be advised not to travel to the airport.
• Keep checking for up to date information about the airport by checking their Twitter or by calling your airline directly. You can also check major flight disruptions on the BBC website.
• If your airline cancels your flight the airline must give you the option of rebooking an alternative flight; either as soon as possible, or at a later date. If no flight is suitable you can request a refund.
• If the flight is cancelled due to reasons out of the airline’s control they will not pay for cancellation of your accommodation or cancellation of any other arrangements. However, if you have taken out a comprehensive travel insurance policy when you booked your holiday, any Heathrow delays should be covered and you should be able to claim back most of the expenses incurred from cancelling the holiday from your travel insurance provider. Please check with your insurers to see if they can help.
• Try to stay calm – you’re in safe hands, the airlines know what they are doing and if your flight has been delayed or cancelled it is for your own safety! There’s nothing to be achieved by getting angry at any airline representative. As they say, don’t shoot the messenger.

If you don’t get anywhere with your airline representative, here are your alternate solutions that will still help you get away:

What are my passenger rights?

If your re-booked flight leaves 2 hours after the scheduled flight your airline should provide you with free meals while you wait and accommodation if needed, as well as two free phone calls. The level of compensation will depend on the distance you are travelling and how much later you will arrive from the original flight.

Heathrow Delays – Why is my flight delayed?

To find out what the Heathrow Airport weather warnings are today, and what they mean for your flight, we recommend finding your flight details with our online Flight Departures Board . Often Heathrow will warn of destination closures, so if you’re flying to Bali where there’s a volcanic ash cloud, your flights will be cancelled. Alternatively, weather warnings will be in relation to the UK, such as Storm Doris in February 2017. Our online departures board will give you the most accurate times for your flights and any Heathrow disruptions today.

As for why your specific flight is delayed, stay up to date on your airlines’ social media, website or local news.

Likely causes for Heathrow delays are weather disruptions, technical issues or strike action; but really Heathrow Airport weather warnings could come down to a whole array of causes, both in the UK and at your destination. The weather might not be suitable for flying, see how each weather type affects flying below for snow, rain, wind and fog . Alternatively, if you’re receiving news that your flight is delayed for other reasons, it’s possible there are strikes, a technical error or in exceptional circumstances, the airline may no longer be flying.

Get compensation for 1+ hour flight delays.

Did you know that Colibra offer fair compensation for flights delayed by at least an hour, regardless of the reason? All you have to do is download their app, register before you fly and upload your boarding pass, all for free. Should your flight then be delayed by an hour or more, Colibra will compensate you within 24 hours for the inconvenience.

Why does snow disrupt flights?

One of the most common causes for Heathrow delays is when it’s snowing is that every plane must be completely de-iced before it can take off. This is because any ice on the plane affects the wings and fuselage which makes the planes more difficult to control. In severely cold temperatures, planes must take off as soon as they are de-iced to prevent the ice building up again. Therefore, this causes delays as de-icing cannot be done in advance at the start of the day.

Another major cause of Heathrow Airport weather warnings and subsequent delays is when the runways and roads are covered in precipitation or ice. Heathrow has to be cleared of any snow and ice to get as many flights out as soon as possible which is usually the airport’s responsibility, i.e. Heathrow’s disruption team.

If too much heavy snow has settled on Heathrow runways, then the airport may have to be closed while the airport is cleared of all snow. Planes cannot take off when there is any snow on the ground.

Larger airports like Heathrow and Gatwick are more impacted by severe weather than smaller airports as they have so many flights that a delay of a few hours causes a huge backlog of flights. On the other hand, they often have bigger and more efficient teams to deal with Heathrow delays and flight disruptions because they are bigger and dealing with more traffic.

The issue being if there are multiple delays at Heathrow due to weather disruptions, planes will have to wait their turn to use the runways and begin your holiday. Just because disruption teams are fast, doesn’t mean the whole process is going to be an instant fix. Often if Heathrow Airport gives a weather warning, officials may decide it’s not worth clearing all terminal runways of snow, if snow is forecast to continue falling over a long period of time.

More weather warnings: Why does wind, rain and fog disrupt flights and cause delays at Heathrow?

When it comes to flying a plane, pilots and flight crews aren’t just looking with their eyes. Pilots have systems to tell them their altitude, radar, temperature gauge and wind speeds – even being in constant contact with the Air Traffic Control team back at Heathrow to let them know exactly what’s going on in the skies.

So why does rain and fog cause so many airport weather warnings and have that much of a difference to Heathrow delays? To begin with, the flight crew themselves have to get to the airport, just the same as you and all of their passengers. This means driving through fog and coping with the various accidents on public transport and the roads en route to work.

This is when you experience turbulence and the seat belt sign will come back on mid-flight. Wind probably causes the most hassle with take off, landing or if you’re travelling in higher altitudes. There’ll be a limit to how hard the plane’s engines can work to maintain the same speed on a good day as they do when travelling against the wind or jet stream and whether it’s safe to fly at all.

Despite all the specialist equipment onboard a plane, it’s still pretty useful to see clearly with your own eyes. Flight crews will be more confident and probably more efficient when travelling on a clear day than when there are weather disruptions. While they may rely on Air Traffic Control and their plane’s systems, you’re more likely to experience fewer Heathrow disruptions and have a cleaner and fast flight on a nice day. At the end of the day, if it’s not safe to fly, you won’t be flying. Heathrow flight delays are there to keep you safe.

Why do strikes result in Heathrow delays?

Striking action can also lead to disruptions which although are usually localised to certain organisations and locations, can still affect your journey.

The key to avoiding these problems however lays simply in planning your journey effectively. Leave plenty of time to get to the airport, especially if you know there’s snow or strikes forecast or check scheduled times the night before on things like Travel and Road Report sites, National Rail and Trainline.

And if you are taking the car to Heathrow airport, drive safely and remember these tips:

• Heathrow Airport weather warnings mean the surrounding roads will be affected too: it’s not just about the airport
• Keep plenty of distance between you and the car in front in case they break suddenly or you hydroplane.
• Drive slowly to ensure they’re always completely in control of their vehicle.
• If you start to slide on ice, steer into the direction you’re going to regain control.

Stay safe out there!

Keeping yourself informed about any Heathrow disruptions and delays will play a major part in streamlining your journey. Utilise news websites, travel apps, Twitter and radio so you’re up-to-date with the latest news regarding your method of transportation which should help you avoid any problematic routes.

There can sometimes be cases where it just won’t be possible for you to make your flight, for example, weather disruptions are so severe that it is unsafe for you to travel. In such circumstances where no one is really at fault, you should check your flight’s status and speak to your airline as it’s more than likely to be affected if the weather conditions are that bad, or alternatively look to your travel insurance for compensation.

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