British Airways passengers are stranded on the tarmac at several airports in the UK and abroad after a “technical problem” disrupted operations.
The problems began around 5 p.m. Monday, when passengers posted on social media that they were waiting in the cold for what happened to their flights.
British Airways has confirmed that there is an issue affecting some of its IT systems which is causing delays.
But he said no flights were currently canceled.
“Flights are operating and we will complete our schedule this evening as planned. No cancellations. Some delays. All our critical operations are ongoing,” BA said in a statement.
Downdetector, a website that logs complaints about non-working websites, reported a sharp increase in problems with the BA site after 5 p.m.
It's unclear how widespread the disruption is, but it is believed to have affected flights worldwide, as well as some domestic flights within the UK.
Travel expert and journalist Simon Calder estimates the problems could affect tens of thousands of passengers, although delays appear to be limited to one to two hours for affected flights.
One passenger wrote on X that they “were forced to stand on the tarmac in very cold Verona while waiting for an already delayed flight.”
Others said they were trying to check in for flights and “systems were down” or technical issues prevented them from booking flights.
Sources within the airline suggest the situation is being brought under control, but there are fears that delays this evening could impact flights on Tuesday.
Some travelers commenting on social media said they were told pilots were unable to generate loading data for their planes and were having difficulty reaching colleagues by phone.
A Heathrow Airport spokesman said it was aware of BA's technical problems, but that its own systems were operating normally.
This is not the first time BA has faced serious disruption due to an IT outage. In May last year, the flights were grounded. A similar situation occurred in spring 2017, disrupting holiday plans, as well as in February 2020.
