IT failure causes chaos, flights cancellations for British airways

Problems with British Airways’ IT systems left thousands of passengers facing flight cancellations, delays and long queues at airports in the airline’s third major computer failure in a little more than two years.

Wednesday’s woes are the latest in a string of problems at the airline, which was fined $230 million last month for a huge customer data breach and is bracing for potential strikes in a pay dispute with its pilots.

BA, owned by International Airlines Group (ICAG.L), apologized to customers for Wednesday’s disruption and said its technical team was working to resolve the problems as soon as possible. It urged customers to allow extra time at airports.

More than 60 flights from Heathrow and Gatwick were cancelled and more than 100 were delayed, according to the departure boards at the two airports.

BA would not confirm how many people have been affected by the IT problems but said that it was experiencing a “systems issue” affecting check-in and flight departures at Heathrow, Gatwick and London City airports.

Customers have experienced issues checking in online, while others complained of being stuck on planes unable to take off for hours.

Stuart Jackson, a photography business manager, said he was stuck on a grounded plane at Heathrow and had already missed his connecting flight, disrupting months of planning and wasting thousands of pounds.

“When I do arrive, I will have to just fly home again,” he said on Twitter. “BA is a complete catastrophe and I will never fly with them again.”