IT failure affects thousands of British Airways passengers

BA said it had resolved an IT failure at three London airports that caused dozens of flights to be cancelled or delayed on Wednesday. The airline apologised to passengers caught up in the disruption at Heathrow, Gatwick and London City, and said nine hours after the trouble began that flights were returning to normal. However, BA said there may be some “knock-on operational disruption” and advised passengers to check its website for the latest flight information before travelling. BA did not say how many flights had been cancelled at Heathrow or Gatwick, but no flights were cancelled from London City. The disruption was caused following issues that forced the airline to use a manual back-up system at check-in to keep its flights operating. The BBC reported that at least 117 BA flights had been cancelled at Heathrow and 10 at Gatwick, while 200 had been delayed across the three airports. Even though not all short-haul flights were affected, passengers flying short haul from all three airports were offered the opportunity to rebook to another day, while customers whose flights had been cancelled were offered a refund or other rebooking options.<br/>