NOT AGAIN , BA! TRAVEL CHAOS RUINS HOLIDAYS

THOUSANDS of travellers had their holiday plans plunged into chaos yesterday as British Airways cancelled nearly 200 flights following a systems failure

- Chris Riches

Many more angry passengers faced long delays as the "technical issue" stranded the airline's jets at the wrong airports.

The chaos came in the wake of a series of BA tech failures where flights were scrapped before last Christmas.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel magazine, said: "The busy holiday season is only just beginning but already BA is breaking its promises to its customers that it would avoid a repeat of last year's travel chaos, with thousands of passengers now finding themselves in holiday hell as a result of yet another IT disaster." He added: "BA has a legal responsibility to refund or re-route any passenger caught up in the chaos, and travellers shouldn't be shy about enforcing their rights." Holidaymakers using other transport also suffered yesterday: Dover was hit by long queues and delays as 5,500 cars and 350 coaches tried to get through the port. Some travellers missed their booked Channel ferries but shipping firms vowed to find room on later services.

Motorways and train stations were swamped, with major congestion on the M25 around London as well as on the M5 and the M6.

There were also delays on Eurostar services from London St Pancras.

Angry BA passengers hit out at airline bosses as they faced huge costs to book replacement flights or had to abandon holidays.

Antony Knights cancelled his long weekend in Berlin with his wife, at a total cost of £1,800.

He told LBC: "The trip had been planned since September 2022 to celebrate my wife's promotion was "I went to look for the customer service desk. The queue already 75 to 100 metres. Two BA people on the desk but elsewhere in the terminal, they were nowhere to be found. It was absolute chaos.

Annoying