UPDATE: British Airways has issued the following statement:
“We have resolved the temporary systems issue from [Wednesday] morning which affected a number of our flights today.
“We apologise to all our customers caught up in the disruption, and appreciate how frustrating their experience has been.
“Our teams have been working tirelessly to get the vast majority of customers on their way, with most of our flights departing.
“Our flights are returning to normal, however there may be some knock-on operational disruption as a result of the issue earlier.
“We continue to advise customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information before coming to the airport.”
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Dozens of British Airways flights were disrupted Wednesday morning following an IT glitch at the airline.
At least 117 flights were cancelled at Heathrow and 10 cancelled at Gatwick Airport, the BBC reports.
More than 200 other flights have been delayed.
One hour ago, London City Airport tweeted to say that some flights there had been delayed, though none had yet been cancelled.
BA says the issue is with two separate systems, one which handles online check-ins and one that deals with flight departures.
Journalist Teri Hornstein posted this video of one of the queues for customer service at Heathrow this morning:
BA said in a statement: “We are very sorry to our customers for the disruption to their travel plans.
“We are working as quickly as possible to resolve a systems issue which has resulted in a number of cancellations and delays today.
“A number of flights continue to operate but we are advising customers to check ba.com for the latest flight information before coming to the airport, and to leave additional time.
“We are offering customers booked on short-haul services departing from Heathrow, Gatwick and London City today, the opportunity to rebook to another day.”
Passengers will be able to rebook for flights between August 8 and 13, BA told us.
In 2017, a system failure at BA caused 672 cancellations over two days, costing the airline £80 million.
Today’s disruption comes after several flights out of Heathrow were cancelled and moved on Monday and Tuesday due to planned strike action.
British Airways is also facing a potential British Airways pilot strike, which may take place towards the end of August.
On July 31, British Airways parent company IAG was denied an injunction aimed at preventing the walkout.
The airline is currently in talks with the British Airline Pilots’ Association, who say they will give 14 days’ notice before any strike action.
We will post further updates on today’s issues as we receive them. As ever, you can join discussion of the story on our forum.
Flight statuses are being updated on the BA website.
Passengers whose short-haul flights are cancelled or delayed over three hours are entitled to €250 or £230 under EU Regulation 261.
