{"id":370123,"date":"2025-08-24T16:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/370123\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T16:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:17:12","slug":"british-airways-removes-20-passengers-from-london-bound-flight-after-extreme-heat-makes-plane-too-heavy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/370123\/","title":{"rendered":"British Airways removes 20 passengers from London-bound flight after ‘extreme heat’ makes plane too heavy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty passengers were forced to leave a British Airways<\/a> flight<\/a> before take-off when extreme heat made the aircraft too heavy to launch into the air.<\/p>\n

The passengers were removed from the aircraft in order for extra fuel to be pumped into the plane<\/a> as it left Amerigo Vespucci Airport in Florence bound for London City Airport earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The BA Embraer ERJ-190 needed extra fuel to reach the right altitude for cruising as it struggled against the searing 35C heat, The Daily Mail reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As heat levels made the air less dense, more fuel was required for the aircraft to function normally, but this imposed greater weight on the plane.<\/p>\n

Observers said the problem was worsened by the short 5,118ft runway at the airport, under half the size of Gatwick’s 10,859ft runway.<\/p>\n

Staff originally wanted 36 people to leave the plane, but only 20 volunteered to do so, according to a British woman on the flight.<\/p>\n

Multiple airlines are reported to have had the same problem during the sweltering summer heat, when sudden temperature changes can cause unexpected difficulties.<\/p>\n

The pilot is required to check the “density altitude” – an aviation performance indicator based on the temperature, to ensure a plane can safely get in the air on the available runway.<\/p>\n

BA issued an apology to passengers who were inconvenienced.<\/p>\n

A spokesman told the Daily Mail: “Due to the unique nature of the airfield with a short runway, extreme temperatures affect air pressure, so aircraft weight must be reduced.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re sorry for the inconvenience this caused our customers and our teams worked hard to get them to their destination as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n

BA added that the affected customers had been booked onto the next available flights, with hotel accommodation and transport arranged for them.<\/p>\n

As climate change leads to more extreme temperatures across continental Europe, aviation experts have warned smaller airports could be forced to reduce their weight.<\/p>\n

This could lead to higher prices for flights to destinations such as Spain, Italy or Greece as aircraft take fewer passengers on board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty passengers were forced to leave a British Airways flight before take-off when extreme heat made the aircraft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[129555,129553,748,3087,393,19435,4884,257,132,129554,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-370123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-aircraft-weight","9":"tag-amerigo-vespucci-airport","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-british-airways","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-extreme-heat","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-london-city-airport","17":"tag-the-passengers","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115084646417839768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}