British Airways is in the midst of the fourth day of disruption that adds to a laundry list of IT problems for the airline.
BA has seen more than 600 flights disrupted over the last three days, having initially encountered issues last Tuesday.
The airline denied being the victim of a cyberattack, saying the glitch affected its check-in desk.
“We know this is an unforgivable situation and apologies don’t go far enough to express our regret,” the airline said in a letter to passengers left at Heathrow, its main base of operation.
BA will rue the latest speed bump as the airline sector battles to reach pre-pandemic passenger levels.
Last week Heathrow airport, BA’s main base of operations, reported the lowest passenger number in nearly 50 years over 2021, while the latest figures shows BA passenger figures at around a third of 2019 levels.
BA can expect another hefty cost in the latest of a litany of IT outages and disruptions in recent years.
Around 500,000 customers had their data compromised in 2018, later costing BA £20mln in a data breach fine.
In 2017, the cancellation of 726 flights, stranding 75,000 May bank holiday travellers, cost BA’s owners International Consolidated Airlines Group (LSE:IAG) nearly £80mln.
UBS downgraded its price target for BA-owners IAG to 215p from a previous target of 220p, but the group is still considered a buy.
“The European airlines under our coverage are facing unprecedented challenges which include in our view a structural decline in business travel, lack of forward visibility as cases of COVID-19 evolve and travel restrictions apply and ability to restructure against this backdrop,” UBS said.
“Furthermore, the industry is challenged by a cyclical downturn with traffic volumes unlikely to return to 2019 levels for several years. Against this backdrop we see IAG as a relative winner compared to other European flag operators.
IAG’s share price was down 3.86% to 148.56p by 11:21 GMT this morning, against Friday’s closing value of 152.78p.