British Airways claims its £750million IT funding meant it recovered from newest technical catastrophe that grounded flights faster
British Airways has claimed it recovered from a technical disaster that affected thousand of passengers quicker than after previous incidents due to a £750 million investment in IT.
Thousands of the airline’s passengers were delayed from around 5pm on Monday when a failure meant many flights were unable to depart on time.
Customers reported being unable to check-in online, while pilots told passengers on aircraft they were being held on the tarmac as vital documents could not be processed.
Holidaymakers were seen standing in the cold waiting to board their flights yesterday evening, while some were stuck on planes awaiting clearance to take off.
Others were forced to wait for their luggage at the baggage claim area – and said British Airways’s communication was ‘appalling’.
The IT issue meant pilots have been unable to file flight plans electronically and had had to manually call into the operations centre at Heathrow.
The captains said they were also unable to file ‘load sheets’ which are critical to aircraft safety, as they calculate the weight and distribution of cargo, fuel and passengers.
The airline said on Monday night that the IT issue had been resolved, but passengers were still experiencing severe disruption as a knock-on effect of the earlier technical hitch.
Passengers queued in the cold on the tarmac in Verona on Monday night as they wait to board their flight home (pictured)
A screenshot of what the British Airways website was displaying as thousands of passengers were impacted by a company-wide IT glitch
Passengers at Heathrow Airport waited for further information about the status of their flight as a result of an IT outage
It added that key systems were back in use after about an hour, with the fault fully resolved in around 90 minutes.
No flights were cancelled or diverted as a result of the problem.
British Airways has suffered a number of systems failures in recent years, with major disruption in May 2023, August 2019 and May 2017.
A spokesperson for British Airways said: ‘A technical issue affecting some of our operational systems meant that for a short period on Monday, we were unable to depart flights as quickly as usual.
‘Our back-up network immediately kicked in so our operation could continue and we were able to get our main systems back online within an hour.
‘There were no cancellations on our mainline network as a result of this issue.
‘We’ve made significant investment in our IT infrastructure, putting in £750 million to replace legacy systems to help prevent outages and recover more quickly when they do occur, which is exactly what happened here.
‘We never want to inconvenience customers. We’ve apologised to those who did face delays and we’re grateful to them for their patience, as well as our colleagues who worked so hard to resolve this issue and support customers.’
British Airways experienced an IT outage which lasted around five hours, causing chaos for thousands of passengers
The website Downdetector showed reports of an IT issue with BA on Monday evening
Passengers were unable to access the BA website for online check-in and other services
It is understood that at least six BA flights out of Heathrow yesterday were cancelled, including to Geneva, Milan and Nice.
Across Europe, North America and Africa, pilots told passengers they would not be able to take off and instead would be held on the tarmac.
A passenger stuck on the ground in Cologne, Germany, said their pilot ‘had an email saying it’s a global outage and they can’t get the weight information’ for the aircraft, The Times reported.
The airline’s bug-ridden website was taken offline for hours, the app crashed and both the external and internal phone lines were cut off.
Passengers started to report problems at around 5pm on Monday, but some noted the issues online before then.
The website Down Detector showed reports of an IT outage at around 4.30pm.
One frustrated pilot on a packed BA jet at Valencia which was running more than an hour behind schedule said: ‘Apologies for this delay folks, there is a company wide IT failure and it means we have to call in our flight plans.
‘We are trying to speed things up but I don’t know how long it will take.’
A passenger sleeps at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport as an IT outage causes disruption at airports across Europe
On social media, travellers also reported being stuck on the tarmac at Naples, Düsseldorf and Tenerife.
Nick Ellis, who was stuck at Heathrow and was due to catch a flight home to Glasgow at 9pm on Monday, had instead been forced to check into a Premier Inn near the airport.
The 44-year-old IT executive said: ‘The lack of communication is a disgrace. I am very angry.
‘I now have to stay in a hotel I imagine and will miss important work meetings.’
‘It’s appalling. I’m very angry. I’m knackered and really annoyed.’
In July last year, airlines were hit by travel chaos after a worldwide IT outage.
Footage posted on social media showed hundreds left stranded at Gatwick airport as they waited for information about their flights, and some being booked into hotels as the delays stretched overnight.
Passengers at London Heathrow were also hard hit, with British Airways cancelling a dozen flights to and from UK and Continental European destinations.
Dozens of BA flights were grounded after a major IT glitch hit company software, causing chaos for thousands of passengers across Europe
The technical fault, which was created by an update pushed out to customers of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, caused Windows software to shut down.
But this latest IT outage appears to only have affected British Airways.
It is unclear whether it was a cyber attack or simply a computer malfunction and technicians were trying frantically to reboot computer systems at BA’s Heathrow HQ.
On X flight tracking app Flight Emergency said: ‘British Airways have lost all Communications to aircraft around Europe due to an IT outage, flights will be managed by Heathrow air traffic control to get inbound flights back to base.’
