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A whopping 5,000 British Airways passengers are expected to face additional disruptions after the airline suffered computer problems on Wednesday, leading to widespread chaos at London’s Heathrow Airport and beyond.
More than 50 flights were cancelled or delayed as a result of technical issues at the UK’s flagship airline headquarters, where Passengers in Terminal Five faced massive queues at check-in counters and were unable to obtain any boarding information.
Related: Travel is back, but are UK airports ready?
While confusion abounded for other people on the ground, there were also major problems with luggage for travellers leaving Heathrow, as luggage piled up due to software bugs.
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For those who disembarked on T5, there were frustrations as passengers also had to wait two hours before leaving the runway.
A Twitter user, Christian Hernandez, contacted British Airways’ official service to say: “Our captain tried to call, send an email just to inform him that his computer systems are not working and that his entire fleet is on the ground. “
– Christian Hernández (@christianhern) March 30, 2022
There were also many knock-on effects at other airports, with flights as far away as Geneva also facing long waits on the tarmac as technical issues continued to hamper day-to-day life at all levels.
“We are very sorry to say that due to the technical factor we encountered yesterday and the expected weather disruptions, we had to reduce our schedule at Heathrow today,” a BA said this morning.
“We are taking steps to make sure as many consumers as possible can travel today as planned. We have apologized to our consumers and offer to refund or book them electronically on select flights, offering them snack vouchers and hotel accommodations if needed.
Not that the remains of the hotel had worked for everyone: some long-haul flights from Heathrow were delayed until 1 p. m.
Related: British Airways’ Ultimate Guide to Avios
Many passengers took to social media to express their frustration with the computer issues, adding Simon Rockett, who wrote: “Second night in airport hotel. Kicked off flight to Cape Town because BA had (significantly) overbooked. ” and now today’s flight (24 hours later) has been first cancelled, but now technically delayed until 11am tomorrow BA’s support and feedback has been catastrophic.
If you are also affected by BA’s series of disruptions, anyone whose flights are delayed by more than 3 hours is entitled to a refund of between £220 and £520. Although the amount of reimbursement that passengers will likely get in the long term is expected to be reduced particularly under the new plans proposed by the UK government.
Another Twitter user who wrote to the airline this morning said: “In the morning, I am still not home after leaving my destination at 08:00 and making plans to arrive yesterday at 19:00. No staff, no assistance, no luggage and an email recommending booking at the hotel and picking you up. Really deficient again, and this is not the first time.
If you are going to spend the day going around T5 due to delays, consult our advisor here on how to go to the rooms.
Although the airline has so far not revealed the cause of this technical problem, hypotheses abound that the shortage was caused by hackers. In 2018, Russian hackers turned out to be a huge knowledge gap that led them to borrow the main points of around 244,000. BA customers.
More recently, of course, Aeroflot banned British airspace in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, suggesting that the Russian state could retaliate with cyberattacks against the UK’s flagship airline.
Whatever the reason, this isn’t the first time computer glitches have caused BA headaches this year, with the most recent delays of just a month since more than 500 flights were blocked or delayed in the same way.
Believed to have been exacerbated by a lack of (BA has eliminated some 10,000 jobs since the start of the pandemic), it has been as confusing for cabin crew as it has been for tourists and business travellers.
There has been turbulence in the money market and BA owner IAG’s inventory fell more than 3% on Wednesday, which would be a reaction to ongoing technical issues.
Hopefully, this will become the nudge the guys need to fix their computer gremlins forever, hopefully.
Image chosen by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP Getty Images.
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