BA apologises for check-in delays at Heathrow and Gatwick

Phillip Schofield posted this photo of delays at Heathrow on Instagram

British Airways has apologised to passengers who faced long delays at check-in at Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Sunday.

The airline is upgrading its check-in system and problems led to lengthy queues on one of the busiest days of the year for the airports.

Among those affected was TV presenter Phillip Schofield, who ended up missing his flight at Heathrow.

BA says the problems have been resolved and flights are operating normally.

Phillip Schofield tweeted about the delays from Heathrow

Other passengers also tweeted about missing flights or facing delays of up to four hours, which were described by some as "chaos".

BA apologised for the delays and said it had extra staff in place to help customers. Some were rebooked on alternative flights, it said.

The airline said it had been phasing in the roll-out of a new world-wide check-in system since October 2015, which more than 10 million customers have already used.

A spokesman added: "Our IT teams worked very hard to quickly fix a short-lived problem with our check-in system.

"We are sorry for the delays some customers had as they checked in for their flights."