Thousands of passengers may be stranded for days, both at home and abroad, as flight cancellations continue following UK air traffic control technical issues, which have so far affected more than 330,000 people.
Weary holidaymakers at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted slept with their luggage on the floor as others jostled for spare seats and spent hours waiting for airline staff to pick up the phone. The airport repercussions of the technical fault may continue for some days as airlines dealt with knock-on impacts.
Passengers affected have also been warned that they are unlikely to be eligible for any compensation.
“Although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident,” the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.
The authority “reminded airlines of their responsibilities to look after passengers” but said the outage is likely to be considered the result of “extraordinary circumstances” under passenger rights rules, making compensation claims difficult.
