British Airways cancels dozens of Heathrow flights after IT problem

BBC: There has been a second day of disruption for travellers at Heathrow after British Airways cancelled at least 42 more short-haul flights following Thursday’s IT problems.

BA said cancellations are still happening due to the “knock-on effect of a technical issue” resulting in staff being in the wrong location.

Around 16,000 passengers have been affected by flights being cancelled.

It comes on the busiest day for UK air travel since 2019.

Most of the cancellations are for European and domestic flights but there have also been delays to other services, while some passengers have been unable to check in online.

Meanwhile, traffic has started building up in Dover as delays are expected on roads and ports over the bank holiday and school half-term break.

On Thursday, BA apologised for cancelling dozens of flights at Heathrow. The airline said it was related to “technical problems” causing difficulties with online check-in.

“While the vast majority of our flights continue to operate today, we have cancelled some of our short-haul flights from Heathrow due to the knock-on effect of a technical issue that we experienced yesterday,” BA said in a statement yesterday.

Those affected have been offered the option to rebook an alternative flight or request a refund, BA added.

The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder calculated that at least 156 flights, mainly domestic and European, have been cancelled.

According to data firm Cirium, 83 BA flights, or around 8 percent of its planned Friday services, were cancelled as of 08:00 BST. Cirium said that BA cancelled 92 flights on Thursday, out of 860 that were scheduled.

A spokesperson for BA told the BBC that only a very small number of departures from Heathrow were actually affected.

Cirium said Friday was expected to see the most departures from UK airports since before the Covid pandemic, with more than 3,000 flights planned.

This is partly down to families heading on holiday for the half-term break.