Passengers have told of half-term travel 'chaos' at Heathrow Airport after a major fault forced flights to be cancelled and left others stuck on planes after landing.
A 'technical issue' with the British Airways boarding system this afternoon left people reportedly stranded on the runway with no explanation of when they would be allowed to enter the airport.
Others have also reported cancellations due to the fault, which is said to have left the airline's computer system unable to 'see' which planes had landed.
The British Airways website was also unavailable for some users.
The disruption comes as experts warned Thursday would likely be the busiest day in UK airports since the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks the upcoming Spring Bank Holiday and the start of the school half term.
Some customers left sitting on the planes took to social media to ask when they would be allowed to leave.
One enraged flyer said to BA on Twitter: "When will you let us off the plane? Sitting on the Tarmac at Heathrow is completely avoidable.
"Let us disembark while you figure out your boarding system. Waiting almost an hour sitting here with no ETA. When will this be resolved?"
The airline replied: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused, our teams are working to resolve the technical issues as soon as possible."
Providing an update on Thursday's disruption, a British Airways spokesperson told the Mirror: "While the majority of our flights have continued to operate today, 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."
In another day of travel chaos on Wednesday, Manchester Airport was hit by a power outage shortly before 8am, resulting in serious issues with check-in and boarding.
One passenger told local media she got to the airport at 7am well in time for her 10am Ryanair flight to Tenerife, but missed it as she was stuck trying to check in her luggage.
"Power cut at airport so stuck trying to check luggage in. Plane has gone. What are we supposed to do? Nobody has come to advise us. It’s my birthday today!" another irate passenger tweeted.
