Jobs outsourcing was not to blame for IT failure: BA chief

Airline branded ‘greedy’ by GMB union

The outsourcing of British Airways jobs was not to blame for a “catastrophic” IT failure that brought the airline’s operations to a halt, its chief executive said.

BA was accused of greed after the GMB union suggested the disruption could have been prevented if the airline had not cut “hundreds of dedicated and loyal” IT staff and contracted the work to India in 2016.

But the airline’s chief executive, Alex Cruz, said this was not the case, adding that a full investigation would be conducted into the failure which affected 75,000 passengers.

He told Sky News: “I can confirm that all the parties involved around this particular event have not been involved in any type of outsourcing in any foreign country.

“They have all been local issues around a local data centre who has been managed and fixed by local resources.”

Mr Cruz added: “On Saturday morning at around 9.30 there was indeed a power surge that had a catastrophic effect over some communications hardware which eventually affected all the messaging across our systems.”

He apologised “profusely” for the hardship caused to customers and offered assurances that no customer data or any list, including terror watch lists, had been compromised by the glitch.

Mick Rix, national officer for aviation at the union, said: “This could have all been avoided. In 2016 BA made hundreds of dedicated and loyal IT staff redundant and outsourced the work to India.

“BA have made substantial profits for a number of years, and many viewed the company’s actions as just plain greedy.”

On Saturday night travellers spent the night sleeping on yoga mats spread on terminal floors after BA cancelled all flights leaving the London hubs, while disruption continued into Sunday with dozens more services from Heathrow axed.

BA chief executive Alex Cruz said local issues were at fault as he rejected claims outsourcing was to blame.