British Airways Cancellations: Thousands Of Passengers Stranded After IT Fault Causes Cancellations And 5-Hour Delays

Flights leaving Heathrow and Gatwick have been affected by the fault, which was resolved on Wednesday afternoon.
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British Airways have resolved the technical issue which led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights on Wednesday, the airline has announced.

Thousands of passengers were left scrambling to salvage their travel plans, after the cancellation of 117 flights due to leave London’s Heathrow airport, and 10 from Gatwick.

Around 20,000 passengers had flights cancelled and BA could face a compensation bill in excess of £8 million if all those affected claim what they are entitled to under European Union rules.

More than 200 other flights were delayed, with some more than five hours behind schedule, following problems with the airline’s IT systems.

British Airways planes at Heathrow (file photo)
British Airways planes at Heathrow (file photo)
PA Wire/PA Images

British Airways passengers began reporting delays and cancelled flights on Wednesday morning.

Images posted on social media showed long queues of holiday-makers at Heathrow and Gatwick, while other passengers shared error messages that had appeared on the BA app.

Darren Rowe, from the Cotswolds, said his 10.20am flight from Heathrow to Hamburg was cancelled before “all chaos let loose”.

He said: “There were massive queues, it was queue here, queue there, nobody was saying anything. The lack of information was just pathetic.

“You’ve got young families in that queue, people going to weddings, birthdays, on business. They could have had somebody come around with water updating people about what was going on.”

The airline used back-up and manual systems to try and cope with the issues.

They’re also offering short-haul passengers departing from Heathrow, Gatwick and London City the chance to re-book to another flight between Thursday and next Tuesday.

Passengers whose travel plans have been affected should be entitled to compensation, advice service money.co.uk has said.

Aashna Shroff, a personal finance expert for the site, advises: “In the unfortunate event that your flight is cancelled, you will be entitled to: a full refund; or an alternative flight to your destination from a nearby airport, with the airline responsible for additional travel costs; or an alternative flight on a later date.

“If you experience a significant delay - whether flying from or to the UK - due to an airline IT outage, the airline is required to make your wait a comfortable one, including providing food and drink, phone calls, and even accommodation, if necessary.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Follow HuffPost UK on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.

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