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When I look at those things where BA and other airlines are successfully able to claim extraordinary circumstances, I am aware of things like
- ATC going on strike and thus cutting airport throughput
- airports also cutting throughput due to bad weather
- bad weather, myriad (though this is a line of thought that says 2mm of snow in LHR isn't extraordinary)
- airports closing runways for repairs
- airports just closing for general refurbishments (Linate) leading to delays at the replacement (Malpensa)
- passenger actions / illness causing diversions
- animals on the runway
- protestors on the runway.
So if you calibrate LGW cutting what I think is 15% of flights on the worst days against the above list, and GAL telling airlines what that means for them, then I suspect BA will be off the hook here. By all means consider CEDR or MCOL and let us know how it goes, I just don't fancy your chances. As it happens, from what I can make out BA won't be too badly hit at LGW, the main victim will be easyJet. Usually there is also a provision that if some non UK airline only has one flight a day to and from an airport, this is allowed to survive without being cut.