British Airways cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on Saturday following a major IT failure that caused severe disruption to its global operations. The airline said the computer problems led to “extremely congested” terminals, and delays are expected to continue into Sunday.
The IT crash affected BA’s booking system, baggage handling, mobile phone apps and check-in desks, leaving passengers facing long queues and confusion. More than 1,000 flights were affected, with 406 scheduled departures from Heathrow after 9am and 71 from Gatwick, according to flightstats.com.
BA initially cancelled all flights before 6pm UK time but later extended this to include all remaining flights for the day from the two airports. A spokeswoman said: “We are working hard to get our customers who were due to fly today on to the next available flights over the course of the rest of the weekend. Those unable to fly will be offered a full refund.”
Chief executive Alex Cruz apologised, saying: “We are extremely sorry for the huge inconvenience this is causing our customers and we understand how frustrating this must be, especially for families hoping to get away on holiday.” The airline said there was no evidence of a cyber-attack, despite speculation following the recent WannaCry ransomware attack.
Air industry consultant John Strickland warned of a “massive knock-on effect” because planes and crew were in the wrong places. The GMB union blamed the problems on BA’s decision to outsource hundreds of IT jobs to India last year.
