Stranded travellers attack lack of help

©Reuters No-fly zone: thousands of frustrated passengers sleep rough for days at London’s Heathrow airport as flights are delayed and cancelled

Thousands of passengers remained stranded at Heathrow on Monday as frustrations intensified over the handling of delays by the airport’s owner BAA and the airlines.

While hundreds of representatives from BAA and the airlines were on hand to answer passengers’ questions about their flights and finding accommodation, those waiting said assistance had come too late.

“The response from BA is pathetic,” said one passenger, a software publisher, who had been at Heathrow since December 18 for a British Airways flight to Mumbai. “I understand their situation but how can they simply say take your baggage and leave the airport . . . This is not sufficient.”

He was one of thousands stuck at the airport after heavy snowfall at the weekend. Some had been there for days, sleeping on the floor, and many complained of a lack of information about when their flights would leave.

Unable to go through security until their flight was called, most passengers were forced to stay on the land side of the terminal. Cancelled flights flashed on the departures board as large advertising screens told them to leave the terminal and rebook their flights on the airlines’ websites. Some kept warm with thermal foil blankets, while others had upgraded to airport-provided blankets and yellow plastic crates transformed into makeshift beds.

In Terminal 3, a hub for Virgin, Cathay Pacific and Iberia, airport staff were stationed outside the terminal to prevent more passengers from entering the waiting area, already swamped with trolleys and waiting travellers.

“No one is speaking to us or giving us any information . . . We wouldn’t be bothered at all if somebody just told us what was happening,” said Liam Mulligan, who had booked to fly to Amman with his wife Pamela. “Heathrow should have been ready like Gatwick,” he said.

Hugo Tolomei, due to fly to Rio de Janeiro, said he had been waiting in Terminals 1 and 3 since Friday. On Sunday night he was offered a £5 voucher for food by Iberia staff.

In Terminal 5, the BA hub, Surinder Yadav, a marine consultant, was sitting on a yoga mat in the same suit and tie he had been wearing since Friday. En route to inspect a vessel in Gibraltar, Mr Yadav said he became stuck at Heathrow in transit and was now trying to return home to Mumbai. On Saturday he had tried to move to a hotel in London but gave up after sitting in traffic for two hours. For the past three nights he had been sleeping on chairs with no blanket, he said, as there had not been enough foil blankets to go around.

The mood was a little brighter at the 5 Tuns, Terminal 5’s local pub, where passengers had parked dozens of baggage carts outside, and at the terminal’s entrance where one off-duty immigration officer had gathered members of his London Sikh temple to serve food to the stranded.

While many passengers had turned down the food, which was being served out of cardboard boxes, most were grateful, he said. “The ones that really need the food don’t think twice.”