Sorry to keep on about contingency fuel but, it is possible that a large amount of it could have been burnt
prior to arriving at dayne, as Alibaba said. I have in the past (in my SH days) loaded 20 mins worth of taxi fuel at LHR and then spend 35-40 mins taxiing around the airport or holding before departure. The rules are contingency fuel may be used any time after engine start. Also contingency fuel may be reduced to 90% (i.e 30 or so days a year!) before departure. I never feel too comfortable doing it, however it is expected of us, and it's not intrinsically dangerous. Especially flying over europe with all the available airfields when compared with some parts of the world.
So, my point now is that the crew may have arrived at dayne with less than planned fuel anyway. What do you expect them to do? Turn round, go back to LHR, refuel and try again????
. No, they did what any crew would have done and continued hoping not to hold at all, or considered all en-route divs (err... ok a tec stop in BHX would be equally embarrassing!
).
Seriously, if you frequently have an issue with the shuttles arriving at dayne not having enough holding capability.... Tell BA, not the pilots. BA never listens to us! If the message gets through the flight tech lot will change the stats so we turn up with more gas.