Christmas travel chaos as all British Airways flights leaving US delayed due to ‘technical issue’

CHRISTMAS holidaymakers have been thrown into overnight travel chaos after numerous British Airways flights were delayed due to a “technical problem”.

The airline blamed a third-party provider for scheduling the hours-long disruption to planes leaving the United States.

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In a statement last night, BA said: “Our flights scheduled to depart from the US tonight are currently being delayed due to a technical issue with our third-party flight scheduling provider, which we are urgently investigating.

“We apologize for any disruption to our customers’ plans, our goal is to get these flights departing as soon as possible.

“It’s not a security issue. We keep our customers informed and provide them with refreshments.”

The problem has since been resolved, but some passengers said they were stranded for hours.

Footage from the departure gates shows crowds of weary travelers awaiting an update, many sitting on the ground.

Gurbaksh Singh Chahal, who was hoping to leave New York, tweeted: “All fun and games at JFK.

“All British Airways flights have been grounded due to an error in their flight charting system and multiple alerts are now being sounded on departures.”

Author Colin Dickey, also in the Big Apple, wrote: “The captain of our British Airways flight just said their flight computers worldwide were down for two hours and no BA aircraft can file a flight plan?

“Doesn’t seem ideal.”

While Jeff Kaminsky, who was traveling to London, said he was stuck for six hours, meaning he missed his connecting flight.

“What will BA do for us?” he added.

At least nine BA long-haul flights to Heathrow, each expected to carry hundreds of passengers, were canceled Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Several others suffered lengthy delays, including one from Philadelphia that is expected to land more than five and a half hours behind schedule.

The raids, which appear to have spread across the Atlantic, hit at the start of the pre-Christmas travel rush.

Among those caught up in the chaos is actress and model Elizabeth Hurley, who is “stranded” at Antigua’s airport.

This morning she said her plane was delayed 20 hours and staff had not yet offered food, water or hotels.

Those who had made it to Heathrow from elsewhere had to wait a long time for their luggage.

Videos show hundreds of suitcases piled up at Britain’s largest and busiest airport.

Lorna Bryant, who landed last night, described the situation as a “nightmare”.

She told MailOnline: “[There were] Hundreds, if not thousands, of suitcases lie unattended in heaps, waiting for staff to load them onto the conveyor belts.”

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