This is what happens when you sack hundreds of staff
CHAOS AS BA HIT BY GLOBAL TECH MELTDOWN Misery is due to jobs going abroad, says union
BRITISH Airways’ global IT crash caused bank holiday travel misery for a second day yesterday as unions blamed the airline for sacking staff and sending IT jobs to India.
With tens of thousands of people stranded, some families slept on yoga mats at airports while others were forced to abandon half-term holidays.
The massive tech failure left BA’s systems unable to generate flight plans for hundreds of services.
It also hit the airline’s check-in systems for passengers and luggage, as well as its information services for travellers.
The GMB union, which has 200,000 members in the services sector, said the disruption could have been avoided if the airline had not cut “hundreds of dedicated and loyal IT staff ” last year.
BA axed computer staff jobs after outsourcing the work to India.
Mick Rix, the union’s aviation officer, said: “We can only feel genuinely sorry for the tens of thousands of passengers who are stranded at airports and face having travel plans and holidays ruined. This could have all been avoided. BA made hundreds of 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.”
The airline insisted its IT outsourcing had affected only 200 UK staff.
They said a “power supply issue” may be to blame for the failure – and insisted there was no evidence of a cyber attack.
Chief executive Alex Cruz said in an online video message to passengers: “We’re not there yet but we are doing our
very best to sort things out for you. Many of our systems are back up today and our colleagues are working hard to build back up our flight programme.”
As the system failure continued to hit services around the globe, cancellations at Heathrow brought chaos to Europe’s busiest airport.
Passengers were blocked from entering terminals until 90 minutes before their flights took off. Exhausted holidaymakers slept on floors using yoga mats and blankets given out by staff, while others slumped on trolleys. And airport shops ran out of food as staff battled to keep frustrated travellers fed and watered. Among those hit was Dorothy Oswald, who missed her surprise 80th birthday party after being left stranded in Rome. Her son Gary, 57, and other family members had gathered in Newcastle to greet her when she got back from a celebration cruise.
Air traffic control instructor Gary said: “I find it incredible they can abandon an 80-year-old woman.
“They were suddenly told, ‘You’ve got to re-book yourself and sort your own accommodation’. The Italian staff then just ran away.
“Thankfully the entertainer from the cruise ship helped her and got her on another flight on Saturday night.”
Pals Ellen Higgins and Tilly Harris, both 19, had their flights from Heathrow cancelled as they tried to get home to Dublin.
Ellen said: “We got here at 9am – an hour later our flight was cancelled. Our parents tried to get us on a flight from Gatwick but that was cancelled too. We could probably swim faster.”
As many as 200,000 passengers were affected after all BA flights from Heathrow and Gatwick were grounded halfway through Saturday.
Student Taylor McWhorter, 23, waiting with pal Margaret Besbalova, had her flight home to Atlanta in the US cancelled and bought another from Virgin for £500 – only then to be offered a re-scheduled flight by BA.
Shirley Willoughby, due to fly to Sydney with grandson Korey James, 19, said: “We were given a letter offering £200 for accommodation and a meal but you’ve still got to pay it out.
“One girl was crying her eyes out as she didn’t have the money available.”
Welsh table tennis international Chloe Thomas was flying to Germany for the World Table Tennis Championship. She said: “We queued for about an hour then the flight was cancelled.”
Chloe was then told to join another queue “the length of the airport” to re-book. She added: “It’s chaos, people are running about all over the place. There’s no one to help, no leadership.”
The knock-on effects hit railway stations too, with queues stretching through the doors at London’s King’s Cross as people tried to head north.
The disruption is expected to continue for several days.