More than 200 British Airways passengers are unexpectedly still in the Caribbean after a weekend of disruption for BA flights.

Problems began early on Saturday morning at Gatwick airport, after passengers for British Airways flight 2157 to Antigua and Grenada checked in.

They boarded the Boeing 777 jet for a 9.25am departure. But, as one passenger told The Independent: “We spent seven hours on the ground at Gatwick on two different aircraft with no food and very little water.”

It is understood that an air-conditioning fault on the first plane could not be fixed, and that around five hours after the scheduled departure the passengers and baggage were moved to a second jet.

Shortly before this plane was expected to depart, a passenger became ill and left the aircraft. By the time their baggage had been located, the crew were “out of hours”. The flight could not depart until Sunday morning – meaning that British Airways was short of aircraft.

One passenger tweeted: “Flight BA2157 shocking customer service. 400 people sat on our 2nd plane of the day with PCR tests about to expire and a massive company like BA can’t pull together a replacement cabin crew today because the current pilot needs a sleep.”

The governments of the Caribbean nations involved agreed to extend the validity of Covid tests taken by passengers.

The Saturday flight eventually got away slightly over 24 hours behind schedule. All the passengers in Grenada and Antigua due to return to Gatwick were put up in hotels overnight, and finally arrived at the Sussex airport over 25 hours late.

Meanwhile the scheduled Sunday Gatwick-Antigua-St Kitts service was delayed by over two hours. Additional delays built up. The Antigua-St Kitts-Antigua rotation was completed five hours behind schedule, meaning the onward flight to Gatwick could not continue.

The jet is finally expected to depart from the Caribbean island around noon local time (4pm GMT), with an arrival just before midnight at Gatwick – 17 hours late.

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, British Airways appears to owe compensation of £550 to each of an estimated 700 passengers who were delayed by many hours.

In all, the delay could cost the carrier half-a-million pounds.

A spokesperson for British Airways said: “We apologise for the inconvenience and are doing everything we can to assist our customers.”

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