Chaos at Heathrow airport as BA scrambles to recover from IT crash
LONDON: Thousands of travellers faced further chaos on Sunday as British Airways cancelled around 60 flights from London’s Heathrow Airport following an IT system failure.
Around one quarter of Sunday’s flights set to depart from London’s major hub before 4pm (1500 GMT) were cancelled as the airline battled to contain the “knock-on disruption” to schedules, with aircraft and crews out of position around the world.
British Airways 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.
More flights left Heathrow as the day wore on, but most were operating with delays. Travellers also faced hold-ups at Gatwick, but no flights were cancelled.
BA cancelled all its flights out of the two airports 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.