LONDON — All flights in and out of London City Airport were disrupted on Tuesday after demonstrators blocked a runway to protest expansion plans.
The protest, which lasted about six hours, ended after police arrested nine people on suspicion of aggravated trespass. Protesters reportedly swam the River Thames to reach the runway, which is surrounded by water. The group had erected a tripod and locked themselves together.
The group Black Lives Matter claimed responsibility for the protest on social media. It says expansion consigns the local community of Newham to environmental degradation.
The group says the airport caters to people working in financial services — not the local population affected by its presence.
“It is an airport designed for the wealthy,” the group said in a statement.
“At the same time 40 percent of Newham’s population struggle to survive on 20,000 pounds ($26,600) or less. When black people in Britain are 28 percent more likely to be exposed to air pollution than their white counterparts, we know that environmental inequality is a racist crisis.”
Hundreds of passengers were affected. By late morning, 16 flights were cancelled and 12 were delayed.
Among those affected was Casey Collins, a freelance management consultant from Devizes in Wiltshire who was supposed to be on a 7:35 a.m. flight to Luxembourg. At first, he thought the long lines were related to the IT problems being experienced by British Airways on Tuesday.
Apart from the chaos at London City Airport, British Airways travelers suffered delays globally due to a computer glitch in the check-in systems, the latest in a string of technical failures to hit major international airlines.
Travelers took to social media to complain of long lines and the airline said “a number” of airports were affected.
According to tracking service Flightaware, 157 BA flights were delayed, or 17 percent of its total flights, and five were cancelled as of midday in London.
“We’ve been in line for three hours,” Erik Blangsted, told KGO-TV as he waited for his flight at San Francisco International Airport. “We’ve talked to the people who’ve offered us some cold water and some chips — and sympathy.”
The airline apologized and said passengers are now being checked in at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports but that the process may be “a bit slower than usual.”
BA had to apologize already in July after computer glitches in check-in systems also delayed passengers. It began installing new systems last October and completed the rollout earlier this year.
The company, which is part of the International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, says it would “encourage customers to check in online before they reach the airport.”
The airline’s problems come barely a month after US carrier Delta Air Lines Inc. suffered a global outage that caused it to cancel 2,300 flights, costing it $100 million in lost revenue.
A fire and failure of a piece of equipment at Delta’s Atlanta headquarters on Aug. 8 had caused a massive outage of the airline’s computer systems, leading to three days of heavy cancellations and delays.
