Inside British Airways’ HQ control room – the nerve centre that oversees up to 820 flights A DAY (and decides if YOUR bag is coming off the plane first) [Video]

If a British Airways plane is stuck on the Heathrow taxiway awaiting a free stand – BA HQ will be fully aware. And will be working on a solution.

If some passengers are transiting through the hub to another flight and time is tight – BA will know that, too. So will the flight crew. And those passengers will already have been made a priority.

How do I know BA will know? Because I’m inside the airline’s state-of-the-art Integrated Operations Control centre (IOC) at its Waterside head office next to Heathrow, discovering how this impressive operational hub tracks every one of its planes around the world and leaps into action at the first sign of a hiccup.

And it’s responsible for planning up to 820 flights a day to around 210 destinations – with up to 100 aircraft from a fleet of 260 in the air at any one time – and at Heathrow’s T5 terminal for allocating planes …