BRITISH Airways was hit by a major IT system failure yesterday which caused disruption to the airline’s operations worldwide.
The issue led to all BA flights being cancelled from Heathrow and Gatwick – including to Scottish airports – on Saturday.
The airline said delays could continue into Sunday, but most long-haul flights should be able to land as normal in London.
It said it had found no evidence the issue was a result of a cyber attack.
The problem, during the spring bank holiday weekend, meant parts of BA's website were unavailable and some travellers were unable check in on the mobile app, with many venting their frustration on social media. It also affected BA call centres.
Delays were reported around the world because of the system failure, including in Rome, Prague, Milan, Stockholm and Malaga.
Gareth Wharton, who was at Heathrow Terminal 5, tweeted a picture of BA staff writing gate information on a whiteboard amid the systems outage.
"Gets worse, #T5 staff having to put gate info up on a white board #LowFi #Heathrow," he tweeted.
Aviation expert Julian Bray said the problem had frozen the whole system, meaning planes were grounded, baggage could not be moved and passengers could not be checked in.
He added: "This is a very serious problem, they should have been able to switch to an alternative system – surely British Airways should be able to do this."
The GMB union claimed the disruption could have been avoided if the airline had not cut "hundreds of dedicated and loyal" IT staff and contracted the work to India in 2016.
In response to the allegations, BA said it would “never compromise the integrity and security of our IT systems”.
A spokeswoman for airline added: “We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers during this busy holiday period."
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