Thousands of British Airways passengers may still face lengthy delays after a major IT glitch hit company software on Monday – causing travel chaos across Europe.
Holidaymakers were seen standing in the cold waiting to board their flights yesterday evening, while some were stuck on planes awaiting clearance to take off.
Others were forced to wait for their luggage at the baggage claim area – and said British Airways’s communication was ‘appalling’.
The IT issue meant pilots have been unable to file flight plans electronically and had had to manually call into the operations centre at Heathrow.
They captains said they were also unable to file ‘load sheets’ which are critical to aircraft safety, as they calculate the weight and distribution of cargo, fuel and passengers.
The airline said on Monday night that the IT issue had been resolved, but passengers were still experiencing severe disruption as a knock-on effect of the earlier technical hitch.
A spokesperson for British Airways said: ‘Our teams worked hard to resolve an issue we experienced for a short time earlier this evening.
‘We’ve apologised to customers for delays to their flights and ensured they were able to reach their destinations as planned.’
Passengers queued in the cold on the tarmac in Verona on Monday night as they wait to board their flight home (pictured)
A screenshot of what the British Airways website was displaying as thousands of passengers were impacted by a company-wide IT glitch
A passenger sleeps at Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport as an IT outage causes disruption at airports across Europe
Nick Ellis, who was stuck at Heathrow and was due to catch a flight home to Glasgow at 9pm on Monday, had instead been forced to check into a Premier Inn near the airport.
The 44-year-old IT executive said: ‘I understand technical problems happen but it seems quite often with British Airways.
‘The lack of communication is a disgrace. I am very angry. I now have to stay in a hotel I imagine and will miss important work meetings.’
He added: ‘It’s appalling. I’m very angry. I’m knackered and really annoyed.’
Another passenger who was also trying to get on the same flight was being forced to do the same.
Personal trainer Fergus Marshall, 32, said: ‘It’s cold, pouring it down with rain and now I’m stranded in London.
‘I fully expect to be compensated for this. Heathrow is so often hit with problems. It’s a disgrace.’
At least six BA flights out of Heathrow yesterday were cancelled, including to Geneva, Milan and Nice.
Across Europe, North America and Africa, pilots told passengers they would not be able to take off and instead would be held on the tarmac.
A passenger stuck on the ground in Cologne, Germany, said their pilot ‘had an email saying it’s a global outage and they can’t get the weight information’ for the aircraft, The Times reported.
Another wrote on social media: ‘BAF535 stuck on tarmac at Naples. Pilot hasn’t received [the] load sheet and [is] unable to communicate with Heathrow as internal phones are down.’
Martin Evans, 45, was trapped at Tenerife airport trying to fly back into Heathrow yesterday. The company director had been unable to board his plane and needed to return to London for business.
He told MailOnline: ‘It’s appalling. I have no idea what is happening.
‘The communication has been terrible. British Airways have given us no warning or communication.
‘There are a lot of very angry people at the airport, it’s madness.’
Another passenger due to land on the same flight added: ‘It is a complete joke. I am fuming.’
The airline’s bug-ridden website was taken offline for hours, the app crashed and both the external and internal phone lines were cut off.
Passengers at Heathrow Airport waited for further information about the status of their flight as a result of an IT outage
British Airways experienced an IT outage which lasted around five hours, causing chaos for thousands of passengers
A message on the website said: ‘We are experiencing high demand on ba.com at the moment.’
Passengers started to report problems at around 5pm on Monday, but some noted the issues online before then.
The website Down Detector showed reports of an IT outage at around 4.30pm.
A source told The Times that the issue was ‘affecting multiple systems’. The cause of the issue is not yet known.
Andrew, 34, had just landed in Heathrow Airport when the outage struck.
He told MailOnline he had been waiting 45 minutes for his luggage when staff announced that it would not be arriving and they had no clue how long it would be until systems were back up and running.
‘It’s like what can I do? These things can take five minutes or five hours and I’ve got better things to be doing than waiting for my baggage,’ he said.
‘There must’ve been 50 people waiting and I imagine most will wait throughout the night.
‘There’s two staff available, both of whom have no information, they have no idea how long it will be, they couldn’t take reports and just gave me a generic brochure.
‘I am going to check myself into the hotel and hope for the best I can call someone about my luggage in the morning.’
A spokesperson for British Airways previously said: ‘Our flights are currently operating, but are experiencing delays as our teams work to resolve a technical issue affecting some of our systems.’
Dozens of BA flights were grounded after a major IT glitch hit company software, causing chaos for thousands of passengers across Europe
The website Downdetector showed reports of an IT issue with BA on Monday evening
Passengers were unable to access the BA website for online check-in and other services
One frustrated pilot on a packed BA jet at Valencia which was running more than an hour behind schedule said: ‘Apologies for this delay folks, there is a company wide IT failure and it means we have to call in our flight plans.
‘We are trying to speed things up but I don’t know how long it will take.’
On social media, travellers also reported being stuck on the tarmac at Naples, Düsseldorf and Tenerife.
Alex Wedderburn, who was stuck at Verona airport, waiting for his BA flight home said: ‘British Airways, can you explain why you have hundreds of people waiting outside, in the cold, on the runaway, and there has been no communications, no collaboration from your staff, just silence and huge wait times.
‘All day, constant delays, and no indication on when you are going to board this plane.
‘This is flight BA 2591, Verona airport. Everyone here has just run the Verona marathon and is exhausted and frustrated.
‘Do you think this acceptable? Please find a solution asap!’
Another passenger wrote: ‘Absolute shambles three flights cancelled this month and now being made to stand on the tarmac in a very cold Verona waiting for an already delayed flight. What has happened to the nations airline? Not fit for purpose.’
In July last year, airlines were hit by travel chaos after a worldwide IT outage.
Footage posted on social media showed hundreds left stranded at Gatwick airport as they waited for information about their flights, and some being booked into hotels as the delays stretched overnight.
Passengers at London Heathrow were also hard hit, with British Airways cancelling a dozen flights to and from UK and Continental European destinations.
The technical fault, which was created by an update pushed out to customers of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, caused Windows software to shut down.
But this latest IT outage appears to only have affected British Airways.
It is unclear whether it was a cyber attack or simply a computer malfunction and technicians were trying frantically to reboot computer systems at BA’s Heathrow HQ.
On X flight tracking app Flight Emergency said: ‘British Airways have lost all Communications to aircraft around Europe due to an IT outage, flights will be managed by Heathrow air traffic control to get inbound flights back to base.’