BA flights almost back on schedule after Heathrow fiasco

BRITISH AIRWAYS was back to 95% of its scheduled service at Heathrow last night as the airport recovered from a catering row that spoiled thousands of holidays.

Only 600 frustrated travellers are now in hotels or at Heathrow waiting to depart, and the airline hopes finally to clear the backlog by tomorrow.

A BA spokesperson said: "Everybody who was on a cancelled flight now has a reconfirmed ticket. If they're not going out today, they will be going out in the next day or two."

As talks continued aimed at settling the dispute at the catering company, the spokesperson said 52,000 people had flown out of Heathrow with BA on Saturday, and figures were expected to show a similar volume for yesterday.

More than 100,000 travellers are thought to have been affected by the chaos that enveloped Heathrow on Thursday after BA staff walked out in sympathy with hundreds of workers summarily sacked from in-flight catering firm Gate Gourmet.

Analysts predict that refunds, loss of flight revenues during peak holiday season and paying to put passengers up in hotels will cost BA more than €40 million.

The debacle has also caused damage to the company's reputation, with many stranded holiday-makers left fuming at BA's refusal to give them priority over customers with tickets booked for current travel.

Instead they have been offered a refund or rebooked on later flights where seats were available.

Gavin Olney, his wife Colleen and their two sons, 13-year-old Nick and Justin, nine, have been stuck at the airport since the strike action began on Thursday.

He said they were forced to buy new clothes because their luggage had been lost by BA and had also paid for their own accommodation.

The family, from Capetown, South Africa, chose to fly BA to Azerbaijan, where Mr Olney works for an oil firm, and were catching a connection from Heathrow when they became caught up in the dispute.

Speaking at the huge marquee set up for frustrated travellers in Terminal 4, Mrs Olney, 38, said: "We chose BA because we always thought it was a good airline now we know exactly how good it is."

Meanwhile, talks were continuing last night between the Transport and General Workers Union and Gate Gourmet managers in a bid to resolve the dispute that sparked the chaos.

Hundreds of Gate Gourmet's Heathrow staff were summarily sacked on Wednesday after striking over pay and conditions.

Workers at the firm's main client, BA, then staged an unofficial walkout in sympathy on Thursday, forcing the airline to suspend all its services from Heathrow until Friday night.