British Airways has been slammed by Which? after it was forced to cancel a large number of flights following an IT fault.
"The busy holiday season is only just beginning but already BA is breaking its promises to its customers that it would avoid a repeat of last year's travel chaos, with thousands of passengers now finding themselves in holiday hell as a result of yet another IT disaster," said Rory Boland, editor of Which? travel.
An IT fault left customers unable to check in and access information about their trips from Heathrow Airport.
Over 155 short-haul flights have been cancelled between Thursday and Friday, affecting around 25,000 travellers looking to get away over the late May bank holiday weekend.
BA took to its website to apologise to customers, saying it was “aware of a technical issue” and that customers should only get in touch if flying within 48 hours due to “high call volumes”.
An initial 55 departing and 21 inbound flights were grounded by the International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG) subsidiary on Thursday.
Ensuing logistical issues, including crews being in the wrong areas, have prompted the carrier to cancel over 80 further flights on Friday.
British Airways has suffered several IT issues in the past, with a fault in 2017 leaving around 75,000 passengers stranded and a data breach a year later prompting a £20mln fine from the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
ICO's fine had been expected to sit around £184mln but was reduced in light of the economic impact of Covid-19 on airlines.
“The majority of our flights continue to operate as planned,” BA said in a statement, “we’ve regrettably had to cancel some services at Heathrow.”
“We’ve apologised to customers whose flights have been affected and offered them the option to rebook to an alternative flight with us or another carrier or request a refund.”
British Airways holds over 50% of Heathrow’s slots and flew an average of 536 flights in or out of the airport a day last year, totalling 195,340.
A spokesperson from the FTSE 100-listed carrier confirmed that cancellations were not related to three-day strikes held by security staff at the airport.
Rory Boland, an editor for consumer group Which?, explained cancellations and delays of over three hours should mean passengers are legally entitled to refunds from the airline.