Update: BA attributes speedy fix to £750 million investment
BA has attributed the speedy fix of an IT failure that caused travel chaos this morning to a £750 million IT investment.
The full statement, published in The Evening Standard, reads: “A technical issue affecting some of our operational systems meant that for a short period on Monday, we were unable to depart flights as quickly as usual.
“Our back-up network immediately kicked in so our operation could continue and we were able to get our main systems back online within an hour.
“There were no cancellations on our mainline network as a result of this issue.
“We’ve made significant investment in our IT infrastructure, putting in £750 million to replace legacy systems to help prevent outages and recover more quickly when they do occur, which is exactly what happened here.
“We never want to inconvenience customers. We’ve apologised to those who did face delays and we’re grateful to them for their patience, as well as our colleagues who worked so hard to resolve this issue and support customers.”
BA IT outage causes travel chaos
A “technical issue” in British Airways’ IT system has led to a chaotic 12 hours for passengers travelling through Heathrow.
Thousands of ticket holders faced delays and disruption throughout Monday evening and this morning, although BA has stated that no flights have been cancelled.
Travel reporter Simon Calder posted rolling updates on Twitter/X.
“British Airways IT system failure is causing delays of 1-2 hours on many BA flights this evening. Trying to contact the airline to find out more,” he Tweeted at around 8pm on Monday.
British Airways responded at around 6am this morning: "Our teams worked hard to resolve an issue we experienced for a short time. We’ve apologised to customers for delays to their flights and ensured they were able to reach their destinations as planned."
British Airways IT failure now resolved.
Airline says: "Our teams worked hard to resolve an issue we experienced for a short time. We’ve apologised to customers for delays to their flights and ensured they were able to reach their destinations as planned."https://t.co/NNpIAUs4AU
— Simon Calder (@SimonCalder) November 19, 2024
Though frustrating, the glitch pales in comparison to an IT failure that hit BA during a bank holiday last year, when some 200 Heathrow flights were cancelled between 25 and 27 May. An estimated 30,000 passengers were affected during the outage.
Shares in BA’s parent company International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG) fell 1.6% this morning.