Many passengers stranded at MMIA as BA cancels Lagos – London flights
Flight disruptions occasioned by the breakdown of British Airways computer system continued yesterday with Lagos London flights affected while many passengers were stranded at the airports.
The system glitch which led to cancellation of thousands of flights worldwide is yet to be fully restored as at Sunday as the airline for the second day cancelled its Lagos- London flights.
Though the airline has duly informed authorities and concerned stakeholders about the development, most passengers are angry over what they called lack of information.
It was however learnt that the airline was considering fixing its intending passengers on other allied airlines including KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, among others.
The Lagos flights cancelled yesterday were BA075(LHR) which was expected to arrive at 17:55hrs and BA074(LHR) which was to depart Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) at 22:55.
The flights were cancelled “due to a major IT System Failure from Origin - London Heathrow”, an official said yesterday.
Daily Trust reports that all BA flights from Heathrow and Gatwick in London were cancelled on Saturday with passengers stranded across airports in Europe, Africa and several other routes.
It was learnt that services temporarily resumed Sunday morning at the two airports but the cancellations have not ceased. Many passengers were also delayed.
The development is estimated to cost the airline almost 200m pounds in compensation and other claims from passengers.
In a statement posted on its website on Sunday, the airline which assured that it was working very hard to fix the system advised intending passengers not to come to airports unless they got information, saying the flight disruptions would continue.
It said, “Following the major IT system failure experienced throughout Saturday, we are continuing to work hard to fully restore all of our global IT systems.
“We expect some further disruption today (Sunday), but we are aiming to operate the majority of services from Heathrow and a near normal schedule at Gatwick.
“Please do not come to the airports unless you have a confirmed booking for travel. At this time we are unable to process re-bookings at the airport terminals.”