British Airways resumed more than 80 percent of its scheduled flights from Heathrow Airport on Saturday as staff struggled to clear the backlog from a wildcat strike during the peak summer travel season.
A spokeswoman warned it would take several days to resume normal service however after the two day strike grounded more than 110,000 passengers.
Some flights resumed late on Friday after being cancelled since Thursday but thousands of passengers remained stranded at the airport.
Marquees were erected outside two of the terminals to provide refreshments and somewhere to sleep while a spokesman for the London Ambulance Service said it had treated several people for exhaustion, stress and dehydration.
Mike Street, British Airways' director of customer services and operations, said the airline also faced a complex logistical challenge, with at least 100 aircraft and 1,000 flying crew in the wrong place.
"We are working as hard as we can to get customers away on their holidays," he said.
A spokesman for the airline said 85 percent of short-haul flights, some 170 departures, and 80 percent of long-haul or 60 flights were scheduled to leave Heathrow on Saturday.
"We now have visible signs of people moving through the airport and getting on planes and we're hoping to continue that," he said.
Around 1,000 BA staff walked out on Thursday in support of workers who were sacked at the company's catering supplier, Gate Gourmet. More than 700 flights have since been cancelled.
"We apologize unreservedly to our customers," BA said on its web site. "This is an unprecedented situation."
The airline said only customers with confirmed reservations would be accepted into the airport for travel. Barriers were in place at Terminal 4 to prevent anyone without a reservation from entering.
Arbitrator ACAS has begun talks with the catering workers' union and Gate Gourmet, at a hotel near Heathrow. A spokesman for ACAS said he could not give any details on their progress.
Passengers who did get a BA flight out of Heathrow on Friday were given food parcels and vouchers before leaving due to the absence of on-board catering.
Around 100,000 passengers fly daily with BA during August, and about two thirds of its flights, excluding franchises, use Heathrow.
Several passengers said they were not angry with the situation, just tired and weary.
One passenger, Australian Glen Perryman, 25, was desperate to get home as his wife was due to give birth.
"My wife was due to give birth yesterday," he said. "I don't know what's happening. I could be a dad already. I just want to get out of here and get back home. I'm not angry though, because what can you do?"
Analysts said the cancellations could cost Europe's No. 3 airline tens of millions of pounds.
BA said it was too early to estimate the cost.
BA's relations with staff have been strained since the airline axed thousands of jobs in an industry downturn that followed the September 2001 attacks in the United States.
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