BA cancels all Heathrow flights due to dispute

British Airways cancelled all its flights from London's Heathrow Airport yesterday at the peak of its summer holiday season, stranding some 20,000 passengers, following a series of wildcat strikes.

Suitcase-laden travellers crowded the entrances to the world's busiest airport after baggage handlers, loaders and bus drivers walked out in sympathy with workers at Heathrow caterer, Gate Gourmet, which is caught up in a row with management.

At least 77 short-haul flights and the corresponding return journeys and 44 long-haul outbound flights were cancelled, a BA spokesman said.

"All of our flights have been cancelled," the spokesman said, adding the situation today was "under review".

Around 100,000 passengers fly daily with the airline during August.

Some 14 aircraft due to land at Heathrow yesterday afternoon were diverted to other British airports, the spokesman said.

The disruption at Heathrow intensified after BA suspended check-ins for its passengers at terminals one and four as a result of the dispute at Gate Gourmet.

"We've planned this holiday for 18 months and we're going to a wedding. We've saved long and hard for it. I'm gutted," said Ian Thompson, 51, who was trying to catch a flight to Los Angeles.

Hundreds of flights by British Airways, Europe's third-largest airline, left London earlier in the day without meals on board for passengers.

The spokesman said earlier that around 1,000 BA baggage handlers stopped work during the dispute.

The airline was struggling to put up passengers who had already checked in for their flights in hotels around Heathrow and advising others to return today.

BA said it was contacting passengers to warn them about the situation before their flights.

Passengers caught up in the disruption over airline meals earlier in the day, before the cancellations, were provided with food bags or vouchers at the airport before boarding flights.