British Airways was today branded an ‘utter shambles’ after 15,000 people in Britain and across the globe were left stranded after yet another IT meltdown forced them to cancel 100 flights and delay 200 more.
The airline’s system failure – the third in recent weeks – left customers unable to check-in or trapped inside grounded planes with some so furious they gave up and walked off.
British Airways rolled out a ‘cost effective’ IT system in October 2015 – but since its launch, the system has caused a host of problems costing the company more than £100million.
Today lines of people stuck at Gatwick and Heathrow today snaked around terminal buildings with James North, who is due to fly to Heraklion, Crete, today telling MailOnline: ‘It’s not the world favourite airline – it’s now the world biggest airline queue’.
Matt Knopp wrote: ‘BA – wtf? Flight cancelled due to continuous system issues you seem totally inept to sort out for the past three years. Get a f**king grip!’
Customers were also stuck at London City, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and other BA hubs in Britain – but passengers across Europe as well as in Japan, India and the US were also hit.
Irate passengers took to social media to vent their fury and revealed their dream family holidays and even their weddings could be ruined by the IT problems with some so upset they gave up and walked off grounded jets.
Parents with children also claimed they were treated ‘like cattle’ and stuck inside airport gates without access to food or water with no clue about if and when they could leave.
British Airways has apologised for the chaos and has already been forced to cancel 81 flights to or from Heathrow while 10 Gatwick flights were also shelved.
More than 200 other flights were delayed, with some more than five hours behind schedule, with problems expected until at least 3pm.
There was chaos at Heathrow (pictured) and other BA hubs today as its IT systems failed again
There was similar chaos at Gatwick where holidays and business trips were left in ruins
Passengers on his flight from Newcastle to Heathrow were left milling around for two hours after their flight was grounded due to the ongoing IT problems
BA casualty Karthik Eyan was left sleeping on the floor at Heathrow after being told his summer flight has been delayed
BA customers flooded social media with tweets calling the situation ‘shambolic’ and ‘pure chaos’
After yet another IT meltdown at BA, it emerged:
- Thousands of passengers were affected after the airline axed 81 flights due to operate to or from Heathrow and 10 at Gatwick, while delaying more than 200 other flights on Wednesday.
- More flights to and from America, India, Japan and Europe were also delayed;
- Irate passengers stuck on grounded jets walked off them in protest – while families were left without food and water;
- Customers being told they can book on to new flights over the next six days but many say their holidays will already be ruined;
The IT failure – the third similar problem for BA in recent weeks – has stopped people getting away on holiday or even for their own weddings as many flights were either delayed or cancelled.
BA has denied it is a global IT outage but passengers as far afield as Japan, India, the US and across Europe are stuck.
Fire on London rail tracks causes more travel misery
Holidaymakers had faced a struggle even getting to Gatwick after the Gatwick Express train service from London Victoria was cancelled.
A fire on the tracks between Victoria and Clapham Junction saw all early-morning Southern and Gatwick Express trains cancelled.
‘Heavy residual delays’ were expected to drag on and commuters were advised not to travel to the rail station, Southern said.
Tim Willcox said passengers were ‘seething’ as he endured a ‘nightmare’ start to a planned short break in Nice, France, with his wife Najah.
The BBC presenter was stranded on the 5.30am Gatwick Express for 20 minutes outside Victoria, put on another train which was also cancelled, and, as a result, missed his 7.25am flight.
He told PA: ‘Most flights are now either fully booked or have shot up in price or involve stopovers.
‘I’m now on a bus. It’s just proving a bloody nightmare. I can’t afford to spend £1,000 on two flights.
‘We’ve got car hire waiting, a hotel booked. We’re now looking at flying to Paris and then flying from Paris to Nice.
‘There was a complete lack of communication from Gatwick Express, there was a very rude staff member who just wouldn’t answer questions. People were seething.’
Laura Izzard tweeted: ‘What’s happening with the Pisa BA604 flight from Heathrow, screen just says please wait… no one can tell us anything …. Little stressed at the moment, especially as I am flying over to get married’.
Stephen Gibbons posted a photo of the cabin of a grounded jet meant to be flying from Scotland to London today and said: ‘Been stuck on the ground in Glasgow for an hour now. People finally just walking off the plane’.
And Cris Penfold wrote: ‘Sat on a @British_Airways plane which won’t take off – the crew don’t even know why. No idea when we will actually fly #pleasejusttakeoff #sortitout’.
The airline has been dogged by IT problems since upgrading its systems in 2017 with the worst failures hitting up to 75,000 people and costing owner AIG around £80 million.
On that occasion, the airline cancelled 726 flights due to a power failure, sparking a raft of compensation claims for flight costs, train and hotel expenses, replacement clothes and toiletries.
British Airways has said the systems problems has hit check-in and flight departures and customers will be offered alternative flights over the coming week.
In a statement, they said: ‘We are working as quickly as possible to resolve a systems issue which has resulted in some short-haul cancellations and delays from London airports.
‘A number of flights continue to operate but we are advising customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information before coming to the airport.
‘We are offering customers booked on short-haul services departing from Heathrow, Gatwick and London City today, the opportunity to rebook to another day.
‘We are encouraging customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information, and to allow additional time at the airport.’
Huge queues formed at Heathrow Airport’s terminal 5 this morning as British Airways systems failed after yet another IT glitch
Queues in the South Terminal at Gatwick snaked towards the main entrance with people warned that there would be delays and cancellations until at least 3pm
Liz Waugh posted this photo of her ordeal while stuck on a plane at Bologna airport in Italy as BA grounded flights
Some people gave up and walked off planes going nowhere and complained that they were given no information from BA staff
The airline has apologised and said they will allow customers to rebook for another day in the coming week
People will be offered opportunity to rebook to another travel day between August 8 and August 13.
The problems first emerged at 4.30am this morning when BA customers tried to check-in for the first flights of the day across the UK.
At Gatwick the queue of BA passengers is nearly stretching outdoors on to the concourse at the airport’s South Terminal, with BA passengers being placed in a separate queue to other travellers.
Staff are guiding passengers on where to queue, and the moving walkway has been shut off.
One member of staff was overheard telling a passenger flying at 3pm to come back no earlier than 1pm to get into the departure lounge.
Melanie Dixon, 49, is travelling to Las Vegas for a four-day holiday with her three young children.
The hairdresser, from Dartford, Kent, said: ‘My app stopped working this morning and I had no idea why. I just thought it was a problem with mine.
‘I didn’t know what was causing the queue until now. We only arrived around 9am and it’s got bad really quickly.
‘This is our first holiday abroad as a family and it’s not got off to a good start. Once we’ve been waiting a bit longer the kids will start getting restless.
‘We were so excited, but this has put a bit of a downer on our holiday.
‘We just want to get through to departures so we can get some breakfast and drop our cases off, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon.
‘It’s not going to be a good experience. BA have hundreds of flights everyday. They should be coping with this much better. You would hope they can sort it out quickly.’
Retired retail worker Denise Hiller, 59, is travelling to Tampa in Florida with husband John, 63, who used to work in oil refinery.
The couple, from Salisbury, Wilts, paid £1,300 for their flights and a hire car on the other side.
Mother of three Mrs Hiller said: ‘We’ve been here since about 8.50am, and we’re due to fly at 12pm but that doesn’t look likely.
‘This isn’t good for BA – it’s not the staff’s fault, but the problem shouldn’t be happening.
‘We’ve not been given any information on how long our flight is going to be delayed.
‘We’ve spent £1,300 on this, and now there’s not much we can do other than wait and hope we take off at some point.
‘When we walked in and saw the queue, it was like ‘oh great’.
‘And it’s the school holidays so it’s much worse. I really feel for the families travelling with young children – it’s awful for them.’
Video courtesy of CBS12.
Today’s chaos came around a fortnight after people missed flights or were forced to take off without their luggage at Heathrow when a check-in system went into meltdown.
The chaos, a day before schools break up and ahead of threatened strikes by pilots, caused queues of up to two hours and delayed British Airways flights from Terminal Five.
Hundreds of suitcases were seen being piled up behind screens after a fault with the bag-drop early in the morning.
With the system still not working well into the afternoon, some passengers faced an agonising wait to see if their baggage would turn up at their destination.
Have you been hit by the BA delays? Email martin.robinson@mailonline.co.uk or call 02036151866