Ex-Chancellor caught in air delays

Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke was putting a brave face on delays today as he awaited a flight to Milan from Heathrow Airport.

Mr Clarke joked that he had resigned himself to fate as he waited to check in for an Alitalia flight to the Italian city.

He was among hundreds of passengers waiting in terminal two of the airport following an air traffic computer breakdown earlier.

“My experience of flying between London and Milan has never been very happy and I just resign myself to fate that I will have to spend half a day here before I can get off the ground.”

But for others the frustration was more obvious.

While the shops and cafés in the main departure area of the terminal remained quiet, hundreds of passengers thronged the downstairs check-in zone awaiting news of delayed flights.

Gillian Gowar, a company director from Derbyshire, said that she was concerned the delays would “wipe out” part of her mini break.

She said: “I’m going to Rome with Alitalia. I’m going on holiday. When we get there we’re supposed to start our tour this afternoon. It clearly looks like that will be wiped out. I’m only going for four days.”

She joked that conspiracy theories were rife amongst the passengers. “People are saying that it’s because President Bush is due to fly into Europe this afternoon,” she said laughing.

But although she did not believe the conspiracy theories she was angered by what she saw as a lack of communication.

She said: “We seem to be being processed but I suppose that is just to get us through to the waiting area. Nobody has said anything. There has been no announcement.

“It’s typical. Nobody wants to tell you anything, whether it’s a railway or an airport. It’s the whole country.

“I knew that it was down before I left home but you have still got to come. You’ve got to stand in the queue like everyone else.”

Meanwhile, Stuart Grace from Walthamstow, east London, an employee of lastminute.com, said he had been told that he would miss his connecting flight to Japan because of the delays.

He said: “We are going to Milan and supposed to be going on to Japan but it looks like we are going to have to spend the night in Milan.

“We were supposed to leave here at 9.40 and have a two-hour stopover but I have just spoken to the company and they said it doesn’t look like we are going to make our connection.

“We will probably have to get a hotel in Milan at our own expense.”