Air traffic chaos at Heathrow Airport lingering in memory

Two days after the four-hour air traffic outage caused by the flight processing system of UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS), some tired passengers were still dragging heavy luggage on their delayed journey at London Heathrow Airport, reported Xinhua.

At Terminal 5 of UK's largest airport and one of the busiest airports in the world, Tracey Miller was waiting to board a connecting flight to get her home in Scotland, together with her husband, son and toddler grandson. "We were in Mexico for a seven-day holiday, but our flight back to London was cancelled since it could not take off at Heathrow, so we had to pay for another night at the hotel in Mexico," she said, "we tried to call the airline for rescheduling our journey, but never got through.

Then we had to send emails, finally we got a reply." Stranded in Mexico, she got away from the hustle and bustle on Tuesday and Wednesday when more than 2,000 flights were cancelled in Britain, with Heathrow being the worst-hit airport and crowds gathering all over the terminals.

Pauline Fernandes, a cleaner at the departure floor of Terminal 5, recalled how busy she was during her shift on Tuesday. "Not long after I started my shift that afternoon, the air disruption occurred and a lot of people crowed in the terminal, many of them sitting on the floor," she said. "There were long queues in the toilet I work. It was too busy that I even had no time and space to replenish the toilet paper," she said.

Her employer had to give her one day off to have a rest after the super busy and tiring working day. Alroy Almeida, who works at a coffee shop at the arrival floor of the terminal, also eyewitnessed the scene of air traffic outage. The crowd was so big on that day that it even spread to the arrival floor. "From the till, I can see people everywhere near our shop, some sitting on their suitcases, some sitting on the floor," he said, "At first people came to buy hot food at our store, then all our food were sold out one hour before we closed, even the flat bread which is normally not popular among customers." Similar scenes also occured at other terminals of Heathrow Airport.

A staff member of Air China said huge crowds of people were in and outside Terminal 2 after the operation disruption of the airport, and the disruption brought pressure on airlines in terms of customer service. The company's three flights to Heathrow on that day had to be diverted to alternate airports in other countries in Europe. It increased the costs for the airline. Passengers not holding valid visas for the countries had to stay at designated areas at the alternate airports for long hours before they could board flights to London again. "We were lucky as we could still stay at the hotel in Mexico," Miller said, "Those who slept on the floor of airports in London really had a hard time." Miller was relieved to find that her flight to Scotland was on time, "I just want to go home," she said with a yawn.

A staff member of British Airways told the journalist that there were still some delays on Thursday, "I hope it's the last day," he said. Monica Neil, a Canadian tourist, was noticed her flight cancellation within 24 hours before departing from Munich to London. She and her husband planned to join a tour group in UK, but had to miss one day from the tour while paying for one more night for the hotel at Munich. She hopes the airline could cover her loss. But according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), passengers like Neil are unlikely to receive compensations for the cancellation. "We consider that disruption caused by the NATS outage is likely to be considered the result of 'extraordinary circumstances' under passenger rights rules.

This means that although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident," the CAA said in a statement. Airlines are also struggling with losses due to the disruption.

For example, according to Financial Times's calculation, Ryanair, a major airline in Europe, cancelled 260 flights on Tuesday alone, which approximately put the airline's revenue of 2.6 million pounds (3.5 million U.S. dollars) at risk by offering passengers the choice of rebooking or a refund. With the airport resuming normal operation days after the disorder, follow-up work are still awaiting those involved, such as dealing with the bills, investigating the cause of the outage and rebuilding confidence.