Last minute flight from London arranged for ‘hundreds’ of Irish passengers

BRITISH AIRWAYS ARRANGED a last minute flight to Dublin from London Heathrow last night after hundreds of passengers were nearly stranded due to an apparent overbooking of a previous flight.

Images and photos of Heathrow Terminal 5 surfaced on social media showing queues of passengers who had arrived at the airport and were unable to board the 8.55pm Aer Lingus flight back to Dublin.

pic.twitter.com/Kwh3sN5PrI

– Matt Reed (@mattreedhk) December 20, 2020

One person who showed up on the flight wrote on Twitter that “hundreds” of people had arrived for the 8.55pm flight.

It was initially thought that British Airways would place stranded passengers in a hotel for the night, but later it emerged that a last minute flight had been arranged.

“All these incredibly stressed Irish people in # Terminal 5 with nowhere to go,” tweeted one person, showing a video of passengers in masks gathering at the terminal.

Another person wrote: “Most of this crowd don’t even know what’s going on. Hoping to book the flight again and stay in a hotel. “

Scenes currently in @Heathrow Airport! Hundreds of passengers waiting for communication from @British Airways regarding overbooking of #Dublin flights tonight! #Heathrow #British Airways #Aer Lingus @rtenews @SkyNews #coming home https://t.co/dRJIRiGafo pic.twitter.com/ac0zMT8ybV

– Emma (@ EmmaEgan1) December 20, 2020

There was demand on flights from London last night as passengers tried to return home following the government’s decision to ban flights from Britain to Ireland for 48 hours amid concerns about the emergence of a mutated strain of coronavirus in London and the South East from England.

British Airways reportedly contacted the Irish government to arrange the last minute flight from London to Dublin, which departed at 11pm.

A BA spokesperson said: “Our teams took care of customers while we urgently looked for alternative arrangements to get them to Dublin as quickly as possible.”