The travel plans of tens of thousands of British Airways passengers were thrown into disarray on Wednesday when more than 500 flights were cancelled or delayed as a result ofa systems failure.
London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and City airports were most affected by the computer problems. BA refused to reveal the number of flights affected but according to Flightstats.com, which tracks arrivals and departures, by 5.30pm the airline had cancelled 140 flights and a further 370 had been delayed.
BA said its latest systems failures affected only the London airports, but the disruptionhad knock-on effects elsewhere, including at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast and in many European destinations when incoming flights failed to arrive.
Customers experienced difficulties checking in online, and queues formed in airport departure areas as the airline moved to manual systems to keep flights operating.
Some social media users reported that, on flights that did take off, the food and drink service was affected.
Air travel experts said BA may be liable to pay compensation to affected passengers, on top of refunding them the ticket price. Under EU law, some passengers whose flights are cancelled or delayed by two hours or more can be given compensation.
The airline said it was offering customers the chance to move bookings to another travel day between 8 and 13 August.
When an airline starts cancelling or delaying flights for more than three hours, passengers are entitled to compensation of €250-€600 under EU rules.
The cause of the problem has to be under the airline’s control and not an “extraordinary circumstance”. Lack of planes/staff, flight overbooking, a strike by the airline’s staff or an IT failure are all considered to be within the airline’s control – so compensation is payable.
Passengers on cancelled short-haul flights – up to 1,500km – are entitled to €250 or £230. For flights of 1,500km-3,500km duration, passengers are entitled to €400 (£370) or €600 (£555) for the longest flights (more than 3,500km).
Compensation is also payable in the event that the plane is delayed. The payments are the same but only kick in when the plane has been delayed three hours for short flights or four hours for the longer trips. The delay is calculated against the time the plane was due to arrive.
Passengers are also entitled to “assistance” under the EU rules. Short-haul passengers should receive food and water after two hours. Mid-distance passengers get help after three hours, while long-haul passengers receive it after they have been held in the terminal for four hours. If the delay is overnight, passengers should be provided with hotel accommodation but this often does not happen. This assistance should be provided irrespective of whether the delay is the airline’s fault.
The airlines have fought these compensation rules since they were introduced and passengers have had to go to court to get their money. The airlines frequently blame delays on events outside their control. Freak weather events, or a last- minute strike by air traffic controllers are deemed to be outside their control. A lack of planes or staff is not.
The rules only apply to EU-based airlines or all flights that start in the EU on non-EU based carriers. What will happen post-Brexit is not yet clear. Miles Brignall
About half of the BA flights scheduled to depart from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 between 9.30am and midday were cancelled or delayed, according to the airport’s website.
It was not until 4pm that BA said it had resolved its computer problems. In a statement, the airline said: “We apologise to all our customers caught up in the disruption, and appreciate how frustrating their experience has been. Our teams have been working tirelessly to get the vast majority of customers on their way, with most of our flights departing.”
It added: “Our flights are returning to normal. However, there may be some knock-on operational disruption.” The airline was still advising passengers to check for flight information on its website before travelling to the airport.
Darren Rowe
(@djrowe149)@British_Airways @BBCNews – here we go again! Chaos! This is only half of one queue! My flight cancelled as are 100’s of others. I had checked-in so need my bag back – others told as checked-in can’t leave T5 without checking out! Happy 100th anniversary #BA pic.twitter.com/xr0DRUieQh
The computer failure is the latest in a series of operational problems to hit the airline in the busy holiday season.
Earlier this week, BA flights were among a total of 177 flights cancelled and then reinstated because of threatened industrial action by Heathrow staff.
The strikes, originally due to be begin at midnight on Monday, were suspended to allow for further talks between union and airport officials.
BA also faces separate strike action from its pilots later this month. In a ballot of the pilots’ union Balpa, 93% of the airline’s 4,000 pilots voted in favour of taking industrial action after rejecting a three-year pay deal. BA lost a legal challenge to the strikes, which are expected to cost the airline £40m a day.
If BA pilots go ahead with strikes, the likely disruption could coincide with five days of walkouts announced late on Wednesday by Ryanair pilots who are members of the Balpa union.
Balpa said that “decades of Ryanair refusing to deal with unions” had led to members voting for a 48-hour strike beginning on 22 August and a 72-hour strike from 2 September.
“No pilot wants to spoil the public’s travel plans but at the moment it seems we have no choice,” said Balpa’s general secretary, Brian Strutton.
A third strike action, by Heathrow ground staff, could still go ahead on 22 and 23 August unless talks result in a compromise.
BA had other problems this week after 200 people had to be evacuated from a British Airways flight after smoke poured into the cabin minutes before it was due to land in Valencia. The crew used oxygen masks as they helped passengers on to the evacuation chutes.
Susanna Way
(@SusannaWay)Flights cancelled by @British_Airways – chaos here at @HeathrowAirport
BA has previously been hit by severe computer system failures that have left passengers stranded around the world.
In 2017, over a May bank holiday weekend, 75,000 passengers were stranded when the airline was forced to cancel more than 700 flights over three days.
