British Airways resumed limited flights from Heathrow airport tonight after its striking staff returned to work, but the airline warned passengers it would be some time before it could run a normal service.

The first of 31 flights left for Casablanca at 6.30pm with others going to Glasgow, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Budapest, Newcastle, Beirut, Manchester, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Lagos, Sydney, Dubai, Malaga, Rio, Kuwait and Tel Aviv.

Tens of thousands of passengers have been left stranded because the BA ground staff stopped work yesterday to protest at the summary sacking of 800 fellow union members at BA's catering supplier, Gate Gourmet. The wildcat action grounded 100,000 passengers across the world on one of the busiest weeks of the year for Heathrow.

BA said earlier that only travellers with confirmed reservations for flights after 8pm tonight will be allowed to fly - other customers should not go to Heathrow. It asked passengers to log on to ba.com for the latest flight information.

By 1600 BST, BA reported that around 600 of the 1,000 ground crew who downed tools in sympathy for sacked workers at a catering company had returned to work. But the task of clearing the flight backlog could take most of the weekend.

"We face a complex logistical challenge with at least 100 aircraft and 1,000 flying crew out of position," said BA’s customer services director, Mike Street. "As a result it will take some time to return to a normal flying programme."

Other, incoming flights, carrying thousands of passengers and, in one case, 300 parrots, were diverted hundreds of miles to airports as far afield as Glasgow. So far BA has cancelled more than 500 flights, 100 yesterday and about 450 today.

The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), which represents both the Gate Gourmet workers and the BA ground staff, began talks with the catering company this afternoon at Acas, the labour reconciliation body. The peace talks were taking place at offices near Heathrow airport rather than at the Acas headquarters in central London.

Brendan Gold, general secretary of the TGWU, said that he was optimistic about the prospect of talks with Gate Gourmet, but he criticised the American-owned company for its brusque dismissal of hundreds of employees yesterday. He gave warning that the strikes could spread beyond Heathrow to other airports around the country.

"People have been sacked in the most disgraceful way, with three minutes notice or via a megaphone in a car-park," he said. "That sort of behaviour, we will not tolerate it, we are not used to it in the UK.

"I’m deeply concerned that what we are seeing at Heathrow may well escalate across the other airports in the UK. There are some worrying signals that that may be the case."

Mr Gold spoke after a packed and jubilant meeting of sacked Gate Gourmet workers in Southall, West London. Chanting "We want justice", some workers expressed a mixture of disbelief, gratitude and remorse that their strike had caused such serious consequences.

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