It was a rough day for airlines – and travelers – flying through England on Tuesday.
In addition to British Airways’ computer-system outage that disrupted dozens of flights at London Gatwick and Heathrow, a group of British supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement temporarily shut down flights at London City Airport when nine protesters locked themselves together on the runway.
According to the Washington Post, the protesters – all of whom were white – were trying to call attention to “global environmental problems that are disproportionately confronting black communities.”
The group was also trying to bring attention to the economic disparity between fliers traveling through the airport and those who live nearby; the average City Airport passenger makes £92,000 while 40% of the population of Newham, where the airport is located, makes £20,000 or less annually, according to the video above.
