British Airways Launches In Depth Investigation Over IT Failure

©Stuart Bailey

British Airways is to launch an in depth investigation in order to determine how its IT system failed on Saturday, resulting in major delays and cancellations of flights at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, over the holiday weekend in the UK.

More than 90 percent of flights were on schedule last night at Heathrow, while all flights have returned to normal at Gatwick.

Around 75,000 passengers were affected by the IT outage, which disrupted the airline’s operations worldwide and also hit its call centers and website.

British Airways’ Chairman and CEO, Alex Cruz, said the problem was caused by a power surge, which affected the company’s communications systems. “We will make an in depth investigation to make sure we get to the bottom of exactly why this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he underlined.

Cruz also said the company was committed to making sure it fulfilled its obligations, “particularly from a passenger compensation point of view”.