Bleary-eyed passengers endured another day of frustration at Heathrow Airport yesterday as the flights chaos caused by the strike of British Airways' ground staff entered its second day.
Despite BA's advice to stay away until flights resumed, from early morning a steady stream of travellers who had been lucky enough to find hotels for the night began arriving at the airport, hoping for good news.
They were greeted by the sight of hundreds of passengers camped out in terminal 4 on makeshift beds constructed from ruck sacks and other luggage.
Every now and again a fluorescent-jacketed airport official would emerge to provide updates. But few seemed to have the definitive answers that the irate crowds wanted.
Outside the terminal building the situation wasn't much better, with tired passengers gathered at a hospitality tent as airport staff handed out coffee, water and sandwiches.
Edwin To, from Hong Kong, said he was worried about his pregnant wife Winnie, 34, who was having contractions. The couple spent Thursday night in the nearby Holiday Inn at BA's expense, only to return in the morning to find the terminal closed. "We have been put on to a Qantas flight this afternoon which was supposed to be leaving at 12.20pm," he said. "We have no idea if it is going to leave on time or at all."
Spirits lifted in late afternoon as word filtered through that two-thirds of the wildcat strikers had returned to work and there was a possibility BA would resume flights at 8pm. But many passengers remained pessimistic.
Nigel Turner, from Reigate, who had been planning to climb Kilimanjaro for a friend's 40th birthday, said he needed to get to Nairobi by Saturday otherwise his trip was off.
"I've been looking forward to this for 18 months, planning and preparing," he said. "There's a safari afterwards. I don't know what's happening."
Chuck Weinstein, 77, from Boston, and his partner, Janet Gorham, had been hoping to return to the US after a trip to Prague yesterday when their flight was cancelled. "We have been here since 5.30am and we are just waiting to see what's coming next," he said. "No one seems to really know anything."
Other travellers who had already boarded flights when the strike hit on Thursday described how they had been stranded for six to eight hours.
Salford University science student, Matthew Cotten, 19, from Camelford, Cornwall, said: "We were on the plane for six hours before we were told it was cancelled, I even had the time to watch an in-flight movie."
To keep their spirits up while they waited to be evacuated from their plane one group of passengers had held an impromptu classical concert. "It was calming because it had got a little tense at that time, people wanting to get out and we couldn't get out," said Benedikte Olsbo, a Norwegian on the way to New York with a friend.
At noon there was a roar of approval when the first 100 waiting passengers were allowed into the terminal building. But as afternoon turned to evening, the gloom deepened.
Babs and Kike Raji, trying to return home to Boston, said: "We haven't been told anything. All we were told was to carry on waiting. I don't think we will fly with BA again."
