STRANDED holidaymakers spent the night on yoga mats on airport floors as disruption from the British Airways system failure caused misery over the weekend.

BA grounded all planes from Gatwick and Heathrow on Saturday, causing chaos for thousands at the start of the school half-term and bank holiday weekend.

Some shops at Gatwick had run out of food and many people slept on the floor on mats and blankets.

Welsh international table tennis player Chloe Thomas was one of those caught up in the chaos. She arrived on Sunday around four hours before her 7.30am flight to Germany for the World Table Tennis Championship in Dusseldorf.

She said there were “just queues everywhere” and her plane was cancelled at the last minute.

“We stood in the check-in queue, not moving, for about an hour then it came up on the screen that the flight was cancelled,” she said.

“To be honest I wasn’t surprised. We didn’t think we would make the flight because we were in the queue for such a long time.”

After finding out they would not be departing for Dusseldorf as planned, the group joined “another queue the length of the airport” to get a number to rebook.

“It’s chaos, people are running about all over the place trying to rebook,” Thomas said.

“There’s no-one to help, no leadership, it’s just mental. There are lots of people everywhere.There’s nowhere to sit, so people are just lying on the floor, sleeping on yoga mats.”

Airport staff had handed out the yoga mats, as well as thin blankets, for people who were stuck there overnight, she added.

The problem has been caused by a worldwide systems failure, which BA said is believed to have been caused by a power supply issue.

As The Argus went to press the airline was unable to say how many flights would be cancelled or how long the disruption is likely to continue for.

A spokesman said: “Our focus is on updating customers and doing what we can to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible.”

Experts predict the knock-on effect could continue for several days and BA is facing huge compensation costs.

The glitch is believed to have been caused by a “power supply issue” and there is no evidence of a cyber attack, the airline said.

There were issues with its online check-in systems in September and July last year, causing severe delays for passengers.

BA chief executive Alex Cruz said the airline was “extremely sorry” for the “huge inconvenience” suffered by customers, especially families heading on half term holidays.