Singapore Airlines has resumed its Airbus A380 flights despite the grounding of the aircraft by Qantas following a serious engine failure on Thursday.
Last night's Singapore Airlines flight from Heathrow departed three hours late just after 1am, and an earlier 10.55 flight was delayed until 18.00.
A Singapore Airlines spokeswoman said it was returning to a normal timetable but added: "It is still fluid."
It may take several days to clear the backlog of passengers because of the difficulty of finding alternative flights for such a large number of people at short notice. Qantas, which is still grounding the A380, has begun an emergency timetable on several of its trunk routes, including London flights:
Today's QF93 service (Melbourne-Los Angeles), normally operated by an A380, has been delayed by 24 hours.
* QF12 and QF108 (both Los Angeles-Sydney) and QF94 (Los Angeles-Melbourne) have also been delayed by 24 hours. These flights were scheduled to depart Los Angeles on 4 November local time.
* QF11 (Sydney-Los Angeles) and QF31 (Sydney-London via Singapore) will operate to schedule, with B747-400 aircraft replacing A380 aircraft.
* QF10 (London-Singapore) on 5 November will be operated by a B777 aircraft chartered from British Airways. A decision will be made later today regarding customers with onward travel to Melbourne.
The Sydney-bound Qantas aircraft was forced to return to Singapore shortly after take-off following an explosion in one of its Rolls Royce engines, the same as those used on Singapore Airlines’ aircraft.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce described the incident as “a significant engine failure”.
Emirates operated A380 flights from Heathrow to Dubai as scheduled as its A380s are not powered by Rolls Royce turbines.