British Airways suffered a technical issue with its IT systems at London’s Heathrow airport on Wednesday, causing significant disruption and flight cancellations. Frustrated passengers took to social media, with several reporting being stuck on planes sat on the runway and missing flight connections. One branded it as “another #fail from @BritishAirways”. “They’ve outdone themselves, we’ve been stuck waiting to disembark for two hours. I hear others have been waiting for three . . . No news, no ETA,” AlexJamesGriffiths wrote on Twitter. The IT failure is the latest in a series of mishaps that threaten to derail BA’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The carrier has already suffered from delays this year stemming from other technical failures and problems with baggage reclaim at Heathrow. It was forced to cancel a number of short-haul flights from Heathrow in February, similarly blaming a “technical failure”. The most damaging IT failure hobbled the airline in 2017 and inflicted lasting damage on its brand after it left thousands of passengers stranded on a busy holiday weekend. It is particularly embarrassing for BA CE Sean Doyle, who took over in October 2020 and has made repairing the airline’s reputation one of his core priorities as the pandemic disruption fades. The carrier apologised to those customers affected, saying it had experienced a “technical issue” for a “short time this afternoon” that affected its operations at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.<br/>
oneworld
Qantas Airways plans to reduce carbon emissions by about 25% by 2030, in part by boosting sustainable aviation fuel to 10% of its fuel mix and increasing the fuel efficiency of flights by 1.5% a year. Qantas, one of the first carriers in the world to pledge to slash carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, has been moving to align itself more closely with corporate customers looking for drastic cuts in emissions from business travel well before that date. “What we are seeing from our customer base is a lot of customers we already know would be willing to pay more to travel sustainably,” CE Alan Joyce said Thursday. Several companies, such as HSBC, Zurich Insurance, Bain & Company and S&P Global, have already announced plans to quickly cut business travel emissions by as much as 70%. “Hydrogen or electric powered aircraft are several decades away, particularly for the length of most flights, so our plan is focused on the technology that is within reach today,” Joyce said. The target of 10% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2030 is in line with a goal set by the oneworld airline alliance, in which it is a member, in October 2021. BA owner IAG has set a target of a 20% reduction in net emissions by 2030, while Finnair has a more ambitious aim for a 50% cut from 2019 emissions levels by 2025. Qantas has begun purchasing SAF for its flights from London to help reduce carbon emissions on those journeys by around 10% and from 2025, it will use biofuels on flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco.<br/>