British Airways’ IT glitch rounds off a terrible week for the airline
British Airways has tonight fixed the IT glitch that led to hundreds of cancelled flights earlier today, but industry experts say the damage to its reputation has already been done.
About 117 flights were cancelled at Heathrow and 10 at Gatwick, with hundreds more delayed, leading to frustrated and stranded passengers.
Read more: British Airways IT outage causes flight delay chaos at Heathrow and Gatwick airports
The problems were caused by an IT failure that caused havoc with the airline’s online check-in system, forcing it to revert to manual check-in systems at airports, leaving customers stuck in queues as they waited longer to board flights.
In a statement issued this evening, BA apologised to its customers and said it appreciated “how frustrating their experience has been”.
One customer, Sam Angell, told the BBC that he would never fly BA again after he was forced to pay for another hotel room in Cyprus at the cost of £858.
The day rounded off what has already been a torrid few days for the airline.
It was forced to cancel hundreds of flights and then reinstate them after strike action by about 4,000 workers, including security guards, firefighters and engineers at Heathrow on Monday and Tuesday was called off.
And one of its flights became the scene of a horror film after it filled with smoke, forcing 175 passengers to slide down emergency chutes to the runway at Valencia airport.
On top of that, industrial action from its own pilots, who are members of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa), looms large.
Last week, the carrier lost a court bid to prevent the pilots from striking later this summer over a pay dispute, placing workers’ summer holidays at risk.
Talks are ongoing between BA and Balpa, which has not yet set any dates for the potential strike action.
Today’s delays and cancellations could lead to a flood of compensation claims, if it can be established that the disruption is BA’s fault.
It is also not the first time BA has been hit with IT failures. It suffered a similar meltdown in May 2017, when it was forced to cancel all departing flights at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
According to Paloma Salmeron, air passenger rights expert at Air Help, passengers are entitled to financial compensation of up to £530 if they flight is delayed by more than three hours, cancelled, or they are denied boarding .
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: “A second major IT glitch at British Airways, to follow that of May 2017, comes on top of a £183m fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office for autumn 2018’s data breach.
Read more: British Airways pilots applauded for landing ‘horror film’ smoke-filled plane
“None of this will help BA keep its customers happy, or placate shareholders in its Anglo-Spanish parent IAG, whose share price is down by around a third over the past year.
“Chief executive Willie Walsh and his team will counter that first-half profits rose yet again, despite a multitude of headwinds, helped by a 6 per cent increase in total passenger numbers. But it won’t take much to persuade disgruntled fliers to look for alternative carriers and the IAG team need to keep on investing in brand, service and the best equipment to keep customers loyal.”