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The head of BA’s parent company has insisted that human error, rather than overly aggressive cost-cutting, was the cause of the computer systems shutdown that left 75,000 BA passengers stranded on a holiday weekend and caused severe damage to the reputation of the carrier. Willie Walsh, CE of International Airlines Group, said an engineer had inadvertently switched off the power supply to one of the company data centres and it was then turned back on again in an uncontrolled fashion. An independent investigation would be carried out, he said. “It’s very clear to me that you can make a mistake in disconnecting the power,” he said. “It’s difficult for me to understand how to make a mistake in reconnecting the power.” The electrical engineer is part of a maintenance team that works at Boadicea House, the Heathrow data centre hit by the power outage on Saturday, May 29, according to two people briefed on the situation. The facility has since 2013 been managed by CBRE Global Works Solutions, the US property services company. CBRE said in a statement last week that it supported BA’s investigation into the cause of the power outage. “We are the manager of the facility for our client BA and fully support its investigation. No determination has been made yet regarding the cause of this incident,” the statement said. An email sent by Bill Francis, IAG’s IT chief, last week confirmed that the shut-down had not been caused by IT failure or software issues. His email revealed that an investigation so far had found that an uninterruptible power supply to a core data centre at Heathrow was over-ridden on Saturday morning. Walsh confirmed the main details of the leaked email. Had the power not been turned on again in an uncontrolled manner, he said, the shutdown “was a problem that we could have overcome probably in a couple of hours; I don’t think it would have led to any cancellations”.<br/>

British Airways cancelled nearly 60% of its flights on May 27 when an IT outage knocked out the airline's systems and stranded 75,000 people over a holiday weekend. The airline cancelled 479 flights or 59 percent of its operations on May 27 and 193 flights or 23 percent of its operations on May 28, its parent IAG said. It blamed a power surge that knocked out its computer system, disrupting flight operations, call centres and its website. The flights resumed on May 30 but the company has faced increasing pressure over its response to the IT failure and IAG CE said Monday that BA had commissioned an independent study into the shutdown. "British Airways is working hard to compensate affected passengers as quickly as possible," said IAG, which also includes Spanish airlines Vueling and Iberia as well as Ireland's Aer Lingus. PM Theresa May had called on British Airways last week to compensate the thousands of passengers who were left stranded.<br/>

Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines are eyeing closer cooperation in a move that may give passengers a greater choice of flights and fares, especially between Asia and the US. Masaru Onishi, the Japanese carrier’s chairman, offered support to Hong Kong’s flag carrier and expressed an interest to collaborate as both airlines met at the IATA annual meeting currently being held in Cancun, Mexico. Onishi reached out to Cathay, which is facing challenging times amid 600 job cuts. “Everyone supports Cathay Pacific. I would like to say to [Cathay CEO] Rupert [Hogg] – what can I do [to help]?” Onishi said. Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific and its subsidiary Cathay Dragon currently have an arrangement to sell tickets and market flights on each other’s routes to Japan, known in the industry as a “codeshare” agreement. A further arrangement between the airlines could benefit Cathay Pacific, one of Asia’s largest international carriers, while Japan Airlines also stands to gain as part of its continuing revival after bankruptcy and a government bailout at the start of the decade.<br/>

Qantas is still keen to work with Dubai-based Emirates on routes to Europe, even as it starts to open up more of its own routes, executives said on Tuesday. Qantas is bypassing Emirates' hub Dubai on a new Perth-London flight and has indicated that it wants to fly to Paris and Frankfurt from Perth, in another challenge to Emirates. "Even when we start flying direct to London, still Dubai will play a big role," Qantas Group CE Alan Joyce said. "Emirates has 40 destinations in Europe. We're never going to fly direct to places like Venice and Prague," he added. Qantas Group also sees big opportunities in China, both for its main brand and low-cost unit Jetstar. "It's about to overtake New Zealand as the biggest inbound market into Australia," Gareth Evans, CEO of Qantas International. "Not all of that is profitable growth so we have to be careful on how we take that opportunity."<br/>