BA flights fail to take off
On Friday 26 May, lots of children across the country left school, happily looking forward to their half-term break. Some families were staying in the UK, making the most of the weekend sunshine, while others headed to the airports for a trip abroad. The last thing that many travellers wanted was to start their holiday by getting stuck at the airport, but that’s exactly what happened, after a catastrophic power failure caused major disruption to flights around the world.
What happened?
On 27 May, all British Airways (BA) flights were grounded from Heathrow and Gatwick airports. This means that the company decided to cancel all flights from both airports, disrupting the plans of thousands of passengers on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. According to BA, 75,000 passengers at 170 airports in 70 countries were affected. Services returned to normal on Sunday, and more than 95% of flights were running by Monday, but there were still lots of delays.
What caused the problems?
BA says the glitch was caused by a problem with the company’s power supply, which affected their messaging system. The backup system also failed to work properly. This meant that BA staff couldn’t find out information about its flights. The airline says that the disaster wasn’t caused by a cyberattack – when hackers deliberately access a computer system without permission in order to steal information or cause widespread damage.
The airline has also been accused of getting rid of lots of IT jobs in the UK last year, which some say could have contributed to the problem. However, BA says this didn’t cause
Saturday’s computer trouble.
What impact has this had?
It’s meant chaos for travellers. Passengers were forced to sleep on yoga mats at airports as they waited to find out whether they could still go on holiday. Airport shops ran out of food, and passengers queued for hours to find their luggage or check the status of their flight. Passengers who were lucky enough to get on a plane later found out that their luggage had not left with them. Other travellers who gave up and decided to head home reported that it took hours even to leave the airport, because there were so many people stuck there.
What does it mean for BA?
BA has apologised for the disruption, but the company is now facing a very big bill. Some experts estimate the crisis could cost the company as much as £100 million. That’s because the company will have to give money to all the customers who couldn’t get on a flight and needed food and accommodation as they waited. Delayed passengers are allowed to claim money from airlines, unless the disruption was caused by events outside the airline’s control.