Advertisement

British Airways cancels flights from London airports after IT glitch

By Allen Cone and Eric DuVall

May 27 (UPI) -- British Airways canceled all flights out of London's two airports Saturday because of computer outages during the start of annual holidays in Britain and the United States.

Flights at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports were canceled because "a major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide," the airline said Saturday.

Advertisement

The airline said, "there's no evidence it's a cyberattack" and instead blamed a power problem for the "global system outage."

British Airways didn't say how many flights were canceled. Sky News reported the airline hoped to operate a "near-normal schedule" on Sunday, though the backlog of travelers would likely lead to delays.

On Twitter, the airline posted: "We apologize for the current IT systems outage. We are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible."

Some passengers said the airline's website was down and some travelers claimed they could not check in on the mobile app, the BBC reported.

Last September, British Airways' check-in system went down because of a computer network failure, causing worldwide service delays. And earlier this week, Gatwick airport reported problems with its baggage-sorting system.

Advertisement

This weekend is considered a heavy travel time due to Britain's annual spring bank holiday and Memorial Day in the United States.

Filmmaker Philip Bloom posted on Twitter: "Sadly stuck on tarmac at Heathrow for at least an hour. No space for us to park."

British Airways is Britain's largest international carrier with 180 destinations worldwide.

Latest Headlines