IT crash may cost British Airways £100 million
British Airways could face a bill of at least £100 million in compensation, additional customer care and lost business following an IT breakdown that affected more than 1,000 flights.
BA chief executive Alex Cruz said yesterday that the airline was running a “near-full operation” at London’s Gatwick Airport and planned to operate all scheduled long-haul services from Heathrow.
But he warned that there would still be delays, as well as some cancelled short-haul flights.
James Walker, chief executive of free flights compensation claim site Resolver, has said BA is facing a payout sum which “will be north of £100m”.
British Airways could face a bill of at least £100 million in compensation, additional customer care and lost business following an IT breakdown that affected more than 1,000 flights over the weekend.
The firm said “many” of its IT systems were back up and running yesterday, but travellers still faced cancellations and delays after a global computer failure grounded hundreds of flights.
BA chief executive Alex Cruz said the airline was running a “near-full operation” at London’s Gatwick Airport and planned to operate all scheduled long-haul services from Heathrow.
But he said there would still be delays, as well as some cancelled short-haul flights.
BA cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on Saturday after the IT outage, which it blamed on a powersupply problem. The glitch threw the plans of thousands of travellers into disarray over the holiday weekend.
James Walker, chief executive of free flights compensation claim site Resolver, said BA handled about 120,000 passengers a day in and out of Heathrow and Gatwick alone, indicating a bill of close to £50m for delays of more than three hours under Eu-backed compensation rules.
About half of those passengers were also likely to be entitled to meals and accommodation while waiting for delayed flights.
And a number will have requested a refund or decided to avoid using BA as a result of a “loss of trust”.
BA has pledged to reunite hundreds of thousands of items of luggage caught up in the delays with passengers.
Walker said it was very probable that BA would have to pay out compensation under the EU scheme which demands payments for flights delayed by at least three hours as a result of reasons within the airline’s control.
“This is not like an ash cloud or traffic controllers’ strike that can’t be predicted,” he said.
“The computer system breaking down is within its control. BA is going to have to pay out and it looks like its costs will be north of £100m.”
BA operates hundreds of flights from Heathrow and Gatwick on a typical day – and both are major hubs for worldwide travel.
Cruz apologized in a video statement, saying: “I know this has been a horrible time for customers.”
Passengers faced hours-long lines to check in, reclaim lost luggage or re-book flights at Terminal 5, BA’S hub at Heathrow. Travellers also faced waits to learn if and when they could fly out.