Residents travelling to the UK on Monday’s British Airways flight were left stranded at the airport for more than four hours after the airline suffered a computer glitch.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, thousands of passengers travelling into Heathrow from around the globe faced long delays because of a malfunction in pilot planning software.

The article said the problem affected long-haul flights on Monday night. At least 32 long-haul flights to or from Heathrow were cancelled, affecting BA routes serving the United States, Canada and Japan.

The article quoted Diane Simpson, 66, and Terri Crockwell, 61, who arrived at London's Heathrow airport exhausted after long delays at LF Wade International Airport.

Ms Simpson said: “There was nothing to eat on the plane. Now I'm tired, hungry and exhausted.

“The plane was meant to take off at 8.15pm but it didn't leave until after midnight. We had something to eat in the terminal but British Airways did not give us any food on the plane. It was a five-hour flight.”

Ms Crockwell added: “We've come to England to spend Christmas with family in Nottingham. It's great to be here, but after the delay I'm exhausted.”

Another resident, expectant mother Holly Murphy, also spoke to the newspaper

Ms Murphy, 38, had travelled back to England with her two children and her in-laws to spend Christmas with her parents in Lincolnshire.

She said: “The plane was delayed by five-and-a-half hours. British Airways told us it was because the flight scanner had gone down at Heathrow. Now we're happy to be home but really rather tired.”

British Airways issued a statement explaining that the delays had been caused by “a technical issue with our third-party flight-planning supplier, which we are urgently investigating”.

“We're sorry for any disruption this will cause to our customers' plans. Our aim is for these flights to depart as quickly as possible.

“This is not a safety issue. We are keeping our customers up to date and providing them with refreshments.”

In a later statement, the airline said: “Our teams have now resolved a temporary issue that affected some of our long-haul flight planning systems overnight, which resulted in delays to our schedule.”

A spokesman for Skyport confirmed that the BA flight, which was scheduled to leave at 8.05pm, left at 12.49am owing to a British Airways IT system issue.