Airport delays – live: Bank Holiday travel chaos as passport e-gates fail across UK

Once again British Airways’ Heathrow operation is in disarray due to an IT failure.

You could just cancel and get a refund, but most people will want to travel despite the cancellation. There are three elements to BA’s obligation to you:

• A flight as soon as possible on any airline (or train) that can get you to your destination as close to the original schedule as possible. If British Airways is unable to find a seat on the same day, then it must search for a flight on a different airline.
• Meals and, if necessary, hotel accommodation as appropriate until you are on your way. British Airways is supposed to provide this care, but in practice during severe disruption many passengers fend for themselves and then claim back later.
• Cash compensation, which ranges between £220 and £520 per person, depending on the length of the flight. Under 1,500km: £220; 1,500-3,500km, £350; above 3,500km, £520. Because of the sheer number of passengers affected, payments are likely to take months rather than weeks.

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has more details in this explainer:

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has this exclusive analysis:

Passengers booked on British Airways between London Heathrow and Edinburgh have seen 10 cancellations in the past 24 hours as a result of the latest IT failure.

Out of a total of 23 flights each way between the Scottish capital and Heathrow on Thursday and Friday, 43 per cent were grounded.

One of the flights that did depart was so badly delayed that it took off from Heathrow on the wrong day. BA1440 was due out at 9.15pm on Thursday but eventually took off just after midnight on Friday, arriving in Edinburgh at 1am.

Milan also experienced 10 cancellations, but these were split between Linate (six) and Malpensa (four).

To Geneva, eight of the scheduled 23 flights were grounded – 31 per cent of the total.

Three airports have seen six cancellations each: Belfast City, Nice and Paris CDG.

When British Airways is obliged to ground large numbers of flights, it will usually aim for high-frequency routes.

However, some holiday flights with limited alternatives have been hit. One of three flights from Heathrow to Faro on the Portuguese Algarve, and one of four to Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol, were grounded on Friday.

Things are going “according to plan” at the Port of Dover, authorities have said, as wait times for coaches and private cars were said to have reduced over the past few hours.

While cars and coaches were earlier said to face queues of 90 and 60 minutes respectively, that has now been shortened to wait times of 30 and 40 minutes.

By noon, the number of “on-the-day” cancellations of British Airways short-haul flights to and from Heathrow had increased to 60 on Friday, reports our travel correspondent Simon Calder.

With 110 cancellations by BA on Thursday, and inbound to Heathrow on Friday morning, the fresh cancellations bring the total to 170.

BA cancelled multiple departures to and from key holiday destinations, including four flights between Heathrow and Athens and six to and from Nice.

Geneva and Milan also had six cancellations each. Edinburgh passengers have seen a dozen flights to and from Heathrow grounded in the past 24 hours.

BA must buy tickets on rival airlines for disrupted passengers to get them to their destinations on the same day as originally booked, if space is available. But at the start of the half-term week for many schools and the bank holiday weekend, few spare seats are available.

As millions of families begin half-term week, and many others start bank holiday weekend getaways, travel within and departing from the UK is looking tumultuous.

The AA has said that 17 million drivers will take to the roads, while British Airways has cancelled dozens more flights to and from London Heathrow, and the AA expects 17 million drivers to take to the

Even allowing for the cancelled flights, which are due to an IT issue, Friday is expected to be the busiest day for flying from the UK since before the Covid pandemic.

Read the full report here:

According to the traffic analyst Inrix, there could be severe delays on key routes.

• On Friday, the busiest times are expected to be 11am-2pm, with the M5 between Bristol and Taunton likely to see particularly heavy traffic.
• On Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday Monday, roads will be busiest between 2pm and 7pm. The M25 will be under pressure, especially anticlockwise from junction 4 to the Dartford Crossing.
• The M6 in Cheshire and Lancashire is predicted to be busy on Sunday afternoon.

At Dover, where the first weekend of the Easter school holidays was marked by long delays for coaches travelling to France, contingency plans appear to be working, reports our correspondent Simon Calder.

Coaches are being marshalled away from the main port, but once they reach the French border checks processing is swift.

The port says that tourist cars are facing a wait of 90 minutes and coaches one hour. After Brexit a hard EU border was imposed in the port, with all British travellers required to have their passport inspected and stamped.

Truck traffic is being controlled to limit delays for tourists.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, has given his take on the cancellations this morning, after noting that “British Airway's annual IT meltdown appears to have arrived on time”.

He writes: “BA hasn't given passengers much if any notice, so many will have travelled to the airport pointlessly which makes the whole thing so much more frustrating.”

Here’s an update on the roads from our deputy travel editor Benjamin Parker:

There have been delays of at least 10 minutes reported throughout the morning on the M3, with a collision at junction 13 (northbound) only adding to that. Those looking to take other routes, such as through Eastleigh, are being warned that there are 20-minute delays through the town.

M3 traffic has backed up in both directions on the M27, with queues of 15 minutes.

The pinch point of the A27 at Arundel is causing delays, and in the Brighton and Hove area there are reports of slow moving or stationary traffic on the A27 – queues are forming.

As for the M25, Britain’s busiest motorway, traffic is queuing in multiple locations, including for miles at junction 10 (A3/Guildford) due to congestion. There is also congested traffic near junction 15 (for the M4) and junction 16 for the M40 on both sides of the carriageway.