More chaos at Heathrow as British Airways scrambles to recover from IT crash

LONDON — Thousands of travellers faced further chaos yesterday as British Airways (BA) cancelled over 60 flights from Heathrow Airport, a day after the airline was forced to cancel all flights out of London-area airports following an IT system failure.

Around one-quarter of yesterday’s flights scheduled to depart from London’s key hub before 4pm (UK local time) were cancelled as the airline battled to contain the “knock-on disruption” to schedules, with aircraft and crews out of position around the world.

BA said it was hoping to operate a near-normal schedule of flights from Gatwick, London’s other major airport, and the majority of its Heathrow services by yesterday.

More flights left Heathrow as the day wore on, but most were operating with delays. Travellers also faced hold-ups at secondary Gatwick Airport, but no flights were cancelled.

The airline advised passengers not to come to the two airports unless they had confirmed bookings, with disruption expected throughout the holiday weekend.

“Everyone is upset. There are people in tears,” said Ms Melanie Ware, who flew in from Los Angeles and was trying to get to Venice for her honeymoon. “We rebooked for Venice for tonight, which they also have cancelled now,” she told Sky News. “So we have no way of getting out of Heathrow and they haven’t compensated us for anything, and we’re stuck and this is the worst honeymoon ever.”

BA cancelled all its flights out of Heathrow and Gatwick on Saturday after the IT failure, which shut down all of the carrier’s check-in and operational systems, and affected call centres and its website. Tens of thousands of people were affected.

However, it did not appear to be a cyber attack, according to a video statement by chairman and chief executive Alex Cruz.

“We believe the root cause was a power supply issue,” said Mr Cruz, adding that IT teams were working “tirelessly” to fix the problems.

Full refunds will be given to customers who decide they no longer wish to travel, he said.

Britain is still recovering from a ransomware attack that crippled crucial infrastructure earlier this month, including computer systems at the National Health Service.

The outage came on a busy weekend in Britain, where today is a public holiday and many schoolchildren are beginning their half-term break.

An AFP photographer at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on Saturday said many travellers were waiting outside the departure area with their luggage in “chaotic” scenes.

They were not allowed inside the terminal for health and safety reasons, prompting some of them to leave in taxis. Passengers were asked to contact the airline in order to locate their luggage, after many were forced to leave Heathrow without claiming their bags.

BA has suffered other IT glitches in recent times, leading to severe delays for passengers in July and September last year. AGENCIES