Fresh chaos at Heathrow as fuel glitch means flights are GROUNDED amid summer holiday nightmare

Thousands of travellers heading through Heathrow were today left to endure the latest scenes of chaos hitting Britain’s beleaguered airports after flights were delayed due to a fuelling issue.

A ‘technical fault’ with the airport’s Jet A-1 fuel system shortly before 2pm meant dozens of outbound planes were unable to leave the tarmac for over an hour at the UK’s busiest travel hub on Saturday. 

The malfunction meant thousands of holidaymakers were left in the lurch and forced to wait for hours at departure gates or on board their flights, and is the latest in a long line of mishaps to hit Britain’s airports this year.

Dozens of frustrated passengers took to Twitter to vent their disappointment with the latest cruel blow to their holiday plans, while others fumed that they would miss transfers and connecting flights owing to the error.  

The delay hits passengers just days before the UK’s summer holiday season is expected to ramp up, with millions of passengers bracing for disruption as travel bosses tell airlines to cancel more flights while aviation experts have shared fears over an extended period of ‘Airmageddon’.

Hundreds of passengers heading to Stansted Airport were also seen stranded in snaking queues today after an ASLEF union strike caused fresh travel headaches for travellers.

And there is set to be even more disruption later this month with hundreds of British Airways check-in staff are expected to walkout in a dispute of pay, although a date has not been set for this. 

Staff shortages, issues with baggage handling services and a lack of trained security staff are all contributing to the disruption seen at many of the UK’s major commercial airports this year.

Heathrow and Gatwick have both started pre-emptively cancelling flights, while government officials are reportedly toying with the idea of introducing a surge pricing scheme for planes that operate during peak hours. 

It comes after months of travel chaos at British airports, with travel hubs struggling to cope with the number of passengers trying to travel abroad after Covid restrictions were eased. 

There have been repeated complaints about long queues for security at airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester, while a shortage of baggage handlers has led to long delays in people collecting their luggage. 

 A Heathrow spokesman said of the delays: ‘A technical fault with the airport’s fuelling system has now been resolved.

‘We are working with all airport partners to minimise disruption, however flights out of Heathrow this afternoon may be subject to delays. We apologise for any impact this has on people’s journeys.’

While inbound flights remained unaffected by Heathrow’s fuelling issues, passengers due to depart from the London airport faced disarray.  

Saturday’s chaos comes as tens of thousands of travellers going through the UK’s busiest airport could have their holiday plans disrupted next week as bosses prepare to tell airlines to cancel more flights.

Heathrow Airport is set to tell airlines they will have to move or cancel flights next week, just days after it cancelled 30 services at short notice to the fury of passengers, many of whom found out only after reaching the airport.

The cancellations came after bosses at the airport told airlines that staff in the terminals could not cope with the number of travellers who were expected during the morning peak.

And a further wave of cancellations is set to be announced by Friday, July 8, just as some schools break up for the summer holidays.

Passengers at the airport had complained of long queues, cancelled flights and lost baggage earlier this week as ‘schedule intervention’ and disruptions at UK airports were exacerbated by strikes in Spain. 

It is expected that BA, which uses Terminal 5 at Heathrow as its hub and has more than 9,000 scheduled flights from the airport in July, will be the most affected airline by the upcoming cancellations, the Telegraph reports.

The paper reports the cancellations are being caused by an amnesty on take-off and landing slots. 

Airlines pay millions of pounds for these time slots and often run flights half empty to ensure they meet targets for the minimum number of flights in the slot – if they do not do this, they have to give it back.

The amnesty, which was announced by the Department for Transport (DfT) earlier this week, allows carriers to hand them back if they are not confident they can operate the service for the rest of the summer season, while retaining the slot for next year.

This is was a bid to ensure cancellations, like those seen on Thursday at Heathrow and earlier in the year during the Easter and half-term holidays, do not happen at the last minute and give passengers time to rebook. 

A spokesperson for British Airways told the PA news agency that the slot amnesty and consequent cancellations will ‘help us to provide the certainty our customers deserve by making it easier to consolidate some of our quieter daily flights to multi-frequency destinations well in advance’. 

They said that the airline ‘welcomes these new measures’, adding: ‘Slot alleviation allows airlines to temporarily reduce their schedules but still retain their slots for the next year to maintain networks and provide consumers with certainty and consistency. 

‘Allocating slots according to the (World Airport Slots Guide system) means airlines can offer the consistent services and efficient connections that consumers are looking for and protect jobs and create growth in the UK.’ 

A Heathrow spokesman said: ‘We encourage airlines to take this opportunity to reconsider their summer schedules without penalty and inform passengers as early as possible of any changes.’

On Thursday thousands of passengers at Heathrow were left furious as their flights were cancelled or delayed at the last minute. 

In a rare ‘schedule intervention’, the airport told its 20 biggest carriers they would have to move 30 flights from the morning peak.

It was a move that meant at least 5,000 travellers woke up to find their flights affected or even cancelled, with the airport saying it would not be able to cope with the high number of passengers in its terminals.

People at the airport took to social media to vent at what they saw as poor service at the London travel hub.

‘Total chaos at Heathrow this morning,’ one tweeted, ‘BA flights cancelled and zero customer service!’

Another branded Terminal 5 a ‘disgraceful shambles’, adding: ‘Left home at 3.30am, checked flight and cancelled on arrival.’

‘We are expecting higher passenger numbers in the morning peak than the airport currently has capacity to serve, and so to keep everyone safe we have asked airlines to remove 30 flights from the morning peak,’ a spokesman for the airport said on Thursday

‘We will work with airlines to get affected passengers rebooked on to other flights outside of the peak so that as many as possible can get away tomorrow, and we apologise for the impact this has on travel plans.’

One passenger travelling through Heathrow has described the scene at baggage claim as looking like ‘a disaster movie’.

Adam Kent, 59, had arrived at Terminal 3 from Orlando, Florida, and said the sight ‘made a horrendous first impression of chaos’ for international visitors.

‘(There was) lost luggage everywhere, stacked between baggage belts everyone stepping over it and no-one doing anything about it,’ Mr Kent, from Worcestershire, told the PA news agency.

‘Being brutally honest, it looks like a serious health and safety issue.

‘No-one visible on the ground to explain the carnage or sort out the mess, it seems like lots of luggage has not arrived with passengers and just been dumped.’

Mr Kent added it was ‘appalling customer service’ at the airport.

‘Staff (were) nowhere to be seen, everyone was pretty shocked,’ he said.

‘The left and abandoned luggage was left unsecured and could easily be stolen … No duty of care shown to passengers’ possessions.’

Heathrow was first plunged into chaos in March as bosses struggled to hire enough workers amid widespread labour shortages in Britain.

And the situation risks worsening as British Airway staff are also threatening to strike, after unions rejected a 10 per cent pay offer in favour of walkouts as early as next month, potentially during the school holidays.

The Civil Aviation Authority said: ‘Although most airlines will book you on to another of their flights to the same destination, if an alternative airline is flying there significantly sooner or other suitable modes of transport are available, then you may have the right to be booked on to that alternative transport instead.’ 

In response to the ongoing issues, the Government unveiled a 22-point plan to tackle flight disruption this summer in a bid to avoid a repeat of travel chaos seen at airports during the Easter and Jubilee holidays.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said there is ‘no excuse for widespread disruption’ and holidaymakers ‘deserve certainty’.

The Government’s action plan includes a number of measures previously announced, such as encouraging airlines to make sure their schedule are ‘deliverable’, an amnesty on slot rules and permitting new aviation workers to begin training before passing security checks.

Announcing the plan in the Commons on Thursday, Mr Shapps said: ‘We appreciate the airports are busy as they recover, but the very last thing we want to see repeated are the scenes that we saw at Easter and half term.

‘So, let me stress, there is absolutely no excuse for further widespread disruption.

‘It’s now more than 100 days since we announced easing of travel restrictions, but to further support the industry as it prepares for the summer, today I’m announcing a 22-point plan with a written ministerial statement to this House to help recruit, retain staff, improve resilience, so that passenger disruption this summer is minimised.

‘And to make sure that if delays do unfortunately occur, travellers get properly compensated.’

However, Labour’s shadow transport minister Mike Kane accused Mr Shapps of being ‘missing in action’ when it comes to aviation.

Mr Kane said: ‘He is missing in action when it comes to aviation. Now, he has mentioned the chaos between Easter and the Jubilee weekend. He did not hold one meeting with aviation bosses during that time.

‘Now EasyJet have announced among others that they could cancel 10,000 flights in the next three months.

‘He needs to step up to the plate, he needs to go to the Prime Minister, he needs to knock on the door, and he needs to clean up the mess.’

Labour peer Lord Woodley, former joint-general secretary of Unite the union, said BA needs to reverse a pandemic pay cut to sort the ongoing airport delays.

He said: ‘The recent airport delays are undoubtedly as a direct result of the opportunism employed by BA slashing jobs, pay and conditions during the pandemic.

‘And now, unfortunately, we can all see that the chickens are indeed coming home to roost, with many airlines too slow to rehire and (restore) wages that were stolen from staff under the cover of Covid.

‘However, I am pleased to tell the House that thanks to my union Unite members, members working for CAE cabin crew have now secured an 18% pay rise, yes an 18% pay rise and a £1,200 summer bonus.’

It was announced that 150 Heathrow-based cabin crew employed by CAE Crewing Service had secured an 18% pay rise, reversing its pandemic cut and even improving on its pre-pandemic rate.

It comes amid fears of a ‘Summer of discontent’ as unions threaten to bring the UK to a halt over the next couple of months.

In June the country was hit with the largest rail strike in decades when 50,000 members of the RMT union walked out in a dispute over pay and conditions. 

The three separate days of strikes causes travel misery, with hundreds of train services cancelled and many rail operators left running reduced services. 

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, did not rule out further strikes in the summer, while there have also been suggestions teachers could vote to go on strike.

Travellers in East Anglia are being hit hard after train drivers from the Aslef union walked out for 24 hours today in its pay dispute with operator, Greater Anglia.

The company said more than 90 per cent of its trains that had been scheduled for today have been cancelled affecting services into London, to Stansted Airport and regional and branch services.