British Airways has been forced to hire four planes to cope with the backlog of passengers, after it was forced to cancel thousands of flights.
Over the past six days, airport closures due to snow resulted in the cancellation of 2,000 flights, during what for BA is one of the busiest times of the year.
Today, the airline is attempting to resume a normal flight schedule, but the airline’s CEO Willie Walsh said it is a “huge logistical task”.
“We typically spend six weeks pulling together the complex Christmas rosters for our 14,000 cabin crew and more than 3,000 pilots. Those 17,000 rosters are like a giant global jigsaw puzzle, which has been torn up by the days of disruption at Heathrow and around the world.”
The airline chartered four aircraft complete with crew for today and yesterday, and will also use them tomorrow to get people to their destinations in time for Christmas.
BA has also been adding extra seats to European destinations, by using longhaul aircraft on the shorthaul routes.
Yesterday, BA flew 275-seat B777s to Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Madrid. These would normally be served by smaller aircraft such as a B767 or an A320.