Protest on London City Airport Runway Causes Mass Delays, Cancellations

On the heels of British Airways’ delays and cancellations caused by a computer problem, passengers — on all airlines — traveling through London City (LCY) faced significant delays and cancellations because of a protest on the airport’s runway. On Tuesday morning, nine protestors from the Black Lives Matter UK group congregated on the runway at LCY and chained themselves together to protest the environmental impact of air travel on black lives.

Early Tuesday morning, LCY tweeted that it was experiencing a disruption to flights because of the protestors at the airport.

By around 9:30am, seven of the nine protestors who were locked together on the runway were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass, being unlawfully airside and breaching London City Airport bylaws.

Black Lives Matter UK tweeted out a video explaining its reasoning for the protest. In the video, they say that the average London City Airport passenger makes £92,000 (~$123,443), and 40% of the Newham population (where LCY is located) struggles to survive on £20,000 (~$26,835) or less, highlighting the disparity between the two groups.

But even after the protestors were arrested, the resulting number of delays and cancellations across all airlines was felt by frustrated travelers. As a result, LCY advised passengers to check the status of their flight with the airline before heading to the airport.

Once the protestors were removed, LCY prepared to resume operations but, of course, there are residual delays and cancellations.

Several airlines that fly through London City, such as Alitalia, CityJet and more tweeted to let customers know that there are still delays at the airport.

Source: thepointsguy.com