technology

British Airways’ disastrous IT meltdown disrupts more than 500 flights

Date: March 01, 2022 Sunil Jha Sunil Jha
British Airways’ disastrous IT meltdown disrupts more than 500 flights 
British Airways (BA), the national flag carrier airline of in the UK, has reportedly suffered one of the aviation industry’s biggest IT meltdowns, which has led to hundreds of flight cancelations and delays.



According to reports, last week, following a massive IT outage, the airline suspended all short-haul flights from Heathrow until Saturday midday. On Saturday, 187 flights were cancelled, accounting for a third of all scheduled flights, plus an additional 151 were delayed.



Meanwhile, as per flight data analysis, BA cancelled 65 flights on Sunday and delayed 188 more.



According to sources, over 600 flights have already been cancelled or delayed in the last 72 hours, counting Friday's delays and cancellations.



BA stated that while the carrier has tried to resolve the system issues it has been facing and anticipated flying most of the flights on Sunday February 27, the firm had to regrettably suspend a small number of short-haul flights given the impact of the breakdown last weekend, with a few of its aircraft and crews now out of position.



The technical issue first surfaced last week on Tuesday, with BA being unable to resolve it at the time. This continued onto Friday night, when Heathrow passengers faced a travel nightmare as the airline experienced a significant system breakdown.



Passengers were not able to book tickets since BA's site and application were down for several hours.



According to reports, the carrier's check-in systems were also crashed, which was said to be the second disruption in ten days.



BA’s catastrophic IT meltdown comes after the carrier stopped flights to Moscow last Friday and also redirected its flights traveling over Russia.



According to parent company IAG, the action was taken in response to Moscow's decision to ban UK airlines because of the Ukraine situation.



BA stated that it has ceased all flights to Moscow, as well as the usage of Russian airspace, after the confirmation of Russian government restrictions.



The airline stated that it was closely watching the situations and that any cancellations induced by the Ukraine conflict will be fully refunded.



Source credit: https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/17790118/travel-chaos-british-airways-meltdown-flights-cancelled/

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Sunil Jha

Sunil Jha has been a part of the content industry for close to two years. Having previously worked as a voice over artist and sportswriter, he now focuses on writing articles for newsorigins.com, across a slew of topics, ranging from technology to trade and finance. With a business-oriented educational background, Sunil brings forth the expertise of deep-dive research and a strategic approach in his write ups.