British Airways has apologised for delays this week and has reassured passengers that it would never operate a flight unless safe to do so.

Since Monday, the airline’s flights to and from Bermuda have been taking a more northerly route — adding up to two hours of flight time. The flight path has been changed to fly north of Ireland, just south of Iceland, over the southern tip of Greenland, and the eastern coast of Canada to reach the Island — an extra 1,000 miles or more.

Angry and concerned passengers and their families have criticised the longer journey, with some speculating the change was prompted by safety reasons.

One frustrated resident, Sarah Felix, said it might be time for Bermuda to have an alternative to BA, which provides the only direct service between London and the Island.

“Bermuda needs to unite to either oust BA or encourage competition by getting other airlines to travel here and eliminate their [BA’s] monopoly,” Ms Felix told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

British Airways defended changes made by the airline but would not comment on specific flight paths.

“Our flights can vary in length due to the agreed flight path, which is determined by a number of factors,” a spokeswoman said.

She added that the safety of customers and crew was always the airline’s priority.

“Our highly trained engineers inspect our aircraft and we would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so,” she said.

“Our team is assisting customers to be on their way as soon as possible.”

Ms Felix said her mother was booked on the BA flight on Monday evening but when she checked online to see if the flight was on schedule, she discovered it had been delayed by a couple of hours.

The return flight to Gatwick was also not scheduled to arrive until 11.45am on Tuesday — much later than the usual estimated landing time of 7am.

“I couldn’t understand why, despite there being a 2½-hour delay this end, the flight was not due to land in the UK until 11.45am — a five-hour delay overall,” Ms Felix said.

While her mother checked in, the Warwick resident asked the desk attendant why the flight was scheduled to take so much longer than usual. “Initially, the chap behind the desk said it was just a flight plan change,” Ms Felix said.

But when she questioned the attendant again, she said she was informed that the change was because of something called “ETOPS” (Extended-range Twin-engined Operational Performance Standards). On social media, several other passengers wrote that they had come to the same conclusion.

ETOPS rules permit twin-engined commercial aircraft, such as the Boeing 777 that services Bermuda, to fly routes that are farther than 60 minutes’ flying time from an emergency or diversion airport. This allows twin-engined aircraft to fly long-distance routes that were previously off-limits to them.

A non-ETOPS route means that the aircraft can no longer fly across the Atlantic Ocean in a straight line because all the diversion airports are more than 60 minutes away.

An unofficial website, The BA Source, attributed the rerouting and subsequent delays to the aircraft flying a non-ETOPS route because of a minor engine issue.

“It would be nice to be given the choice,” Ms Felix said. “I don’t want to be flying on a plane with mechanical issues.

“As passengers, and without the information given by BA, we just don’t know if they are putting their customers at risk, or even the trauma their passengers would go through if they had to land under an emergency at another airport.

“Once, there was a guarantee the flight from London to Bermuda would be on time without delay. Now, week after week, you hear of cancellations and mechanical delay.”

Monday’s was the first BA flight to be affected by delays because of this change.

The flight departed Bermuda at 10.39pm and arrived in Gatwick shortly after 10am the next day.

Yesterday’s BA2233 from Gatwick left five minutes before schedule and arrived almost half an hour before the scheduled 7.57pm. Last night’s flight left at 9.40pm.

According to the BA website, today’s BA2232 is scheduled to depart at the usual time of 8.15pm and is expected to arrive at Gatwick at 7am.