British Airways is blaming a tunnel closure at London Heathrow for its inability to offer food and drinks on short-haul departures today, even in Club Europe business class.
British Airways Warns Of No Food Or Drinks Due To Tunnel Closure
I have a client traveling from Paris to London this afternoon and we received the following email yesterday evening concerning his flight:
We’re very sorry to let you know that we are unable to offer you our standard food and drinks service on your flight with us tomorrow. We have had to take this decision due to an unexpected airfield tunnel closure at London Heathrow, which is affecting our catering operation.
We wanted to let you know in case you want to grab something from the airport prior to boarding the aircraft. If you purchased items from our High Life Café, we’ll automatically refund you.
For our customers travelling in Club Europe, please speak to a member of our team who will be able to provide you with a refreshment voucher.
Sorry again and we look forward to welcoming you onboard.
British Airways
On October 2, the tunnel linking Terminal 4 to cargo terminal area was closed due to a “life safety issue.” Repairs are underway and may finish as early as today, but during that time airlines have been asked to minimize use of that area. That is impacting catering for British Airways and potentially other carriers.
Alternate routes include landslide transit (meaning additional security checks) or via an overland diversion route:
For essential journeys not able to use the landside road system an overland diversion route has been provided via the eastern tug road where vehicles would be escorted in convoys across the taxiway system.
This is not the first time a tunnel closure at LHR has impacted operations. A similar event last October also disrupted catering and flight operations.
Club Europe travelers can request a voucher and eat beforehand.
CONCLUSION
If you are traveling on British Airways today, you might be in for a rude awakening if you are expecting any drinks or nibbles onboard. Prepare accordingly by eating in advance or buying food in the terminal. While it appears the tunnel issue will be resolved by the end of the day, British Airways is warning that food and drinks will be limited today, at least on shorhaul lights.
This has been going on since Sept 30th already.
Crazy that the issue is still not fixed…
LHR-CDG is about an hour depending on the weather so it’s not too bad. Personally, on flights from the UK-AMS/FRA/CDG, I decline the meal on these short hops as I’m usually not that hungry from eating beforehand or will eat at the lounge at AMS/FRA/CDG.
This problem has been ongoing since Sept 30th. Crazy this still didn’t manage to come up with a solution…
Here in Munich on morning LHR-MUC flight. Club Europe had 3 hot breakfast options. Business class was also nine rows deep on this flight.
What I didn’t care for was the previous JFK flight having arrived on a remote stand with no buses for 15min.
Happened coming back from Santorini 2 weeks ago, NOT enough food, slow and awful service as the crew were nowhere to be seen apart from raucous laughter from the galley. Plane looked like a skip at the end of the flight as rubbish wasn’t collected! I’ve had better flights with Ryanair at a quarter of the price. Can’t really find a reason to fly with them. RIP BA.
Note this also affects airside connections when changing terminals, took me 45 minutes yesterday to get from T4 to T5 including bus change (ie taking two busses instead of one)…
Which by the way had me wondering what route Bus 2 could take that Bus 1 obviously could not…. makes CDG look efficient…
Try food fasting for 6 to 12 hours. You will feel a lot better.
Oh honey, I can smell the virtue signalling from hundreds of miles away!
“The sky is falling!” No nibbles on British Airways for an entire day! The world is ending!!!
I had the same problem a week ago and was promised a voucher which never materialised but not really necessary for a short haul flight as we had lounge access we just took some snacks with us. It didn’t affect the quality of service and friendliness of cabin crew having to cope with all the moans and groans aimed at them.