Around 30 flights have been cancelled at Heathrow Airport,  affecting more than 5,000 people, due to a technical snag related to baggage movement.

The airport asked airlines to cut 10% of flights from schedules across terminals two and three on Monday, according to a BBC report.

It comes after problems at baggage reclaim areas that led to a huge piling up of luggage.

Traffic movement has also been hit as Gatwick has announced that it will reduce the number of flights operating from its terminal. EasyJet has announced plans to cut 7% of its 160,000 flights scheduled between July and September.

Tens of thousands of passengers have been hit by airport disruption and flight cancellations in recent weeks, according to the BBC report.

Heathrow said cutting the number of flights would "minimise" the impact of the technical issues affecting baggage systems.

"We apologise unreservedly for the disruption passengers have faced over the course of this weekend," the company said.

British Airways, which operates from terminals three and five, told the BBC it had made a "small number of cancellations" as a result of the airport's request.

It understood BA will be able to re-accommodate the vast majority of customers onto new flights.

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