British Airways IT Glitch ‘Was Exaggerated’
Customers faced hours of queues as Heathrow and Gatwick BA check-in desks grind to a halt
British Airways believes the IT glitch the airline suffered on Sunday was ‘widely misreported’ by the press and that the issue was resolved within an hour.
“We had an IT issue which caused our check-in to run slowly for about two hours early on Sunday morning,” the company said in an official statement. “The issue was resolved and check-in was resumed as normal and we are sorry for any delays to our customers’ travel plans,”
TechWeekEurope understands that any queues that were caused by the outage lasted less than hour.
Check-in
On Sunday morning, the glitch that caused BA check-in desks problems started at Gatwick Airport in London, and then affected Heathrow airport shortly afterwards.
The issue reportedly began at 6.30am Sunday morning, but was resolved by 8am.
British Airways passengers took to Twitter to complain about the chaos, posting photos of long queues and demanding refunds from Britain’s flagship airline.
“Utter shambles at BA check in right now. Why offer online check in then make me queue to join a queue to check in???” wrote Twitter user Scarymonstertwo.
User Adam Reed tweeted: “Delays due to computer glitch! No apologies or explanation! Now after a ridiculous delay, waiting for bags for 20 mins!”
But the airline was keen to downplay the glitch, which it claims only affected customers for a short period. British Airways did not elaborate on the cause of the IT glitch.
Drones
But IT problems aren’t the only issues British Airways has had to deal with this year.
In April, a British Airways A320 jet was struck by a drone on its final approach to Heathrow Airport, an incident that is thought to be the first of its kind in the UK.
The British Airways flight from Geneva was carrying 132 passengers and five crew, and was hit just before landing at around 12:50 BST on Sunday April 17 . On landing, the captain of the A320 reported that an object, which was believed to be a drone, hit the front of the aircraft.
After inspection from ground crew, the aircraft was cleared to resume normal service.
A British Airways spokesman said: “Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight.”
Heathrow’s aviation police have launched an investigation alongside the Metropolitan Police and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). No arrests have yet been made.
In a statement, the CAA said: “The CAA is aware of a possible incident with a drone at Heathrow on Sunday 17 April which is subject to investigation by the Metropolitan Police. Safety is our first priority.
