Airline battles to restore flight planning systems, putting many’s Christmas holidays on hold
British Airways has apologized to customers after experiencing “a technical problem” with its flight scheduling systems, affecting its flights for the last few hours worldwide.
In a statement, BA said: “We are experiencing delays on some of our flights due to a technical issue with flight scheduling. We regret the disruption to our customers’ journeys, we are investigating the issue so they can travel as soon as possible.”
In an earlier statement overnight it had blamed a “third party design supplier” for the situation.
🚨#BREAKING: Entire British airways computer system is down affecting every flight
All of British airways flights are currently grounded as their computer system is down affecting all flights worldwide and no flights can take off or can file a flight plan pic.twitter.com/4dWMU4KKg5
— RAWSALERTS (@rawsalerts) December 20, 2022
The issue first came to light when passengers about to depart from the US were “recruited” on social media platforms, resentful of the delays and the lack of information from BA staff they had faced, with many customers saying they had been delayed for hours.
One passenger wrote on Twitter. “All British Airways flights have been grounded due to an error in the flight mapping system and we now have multiple alerts on departures.”
Another said: “The pilot of our British Airways flight has just informed us that the flight computers have been down for two hours worldwide and no BA planes can submit a flight plan.”
All fun & games at JFK. All @British_Airways flights grounded due to an issue with their flight mapping system & now we have multiple alarms going off in departures 😭 pic.twitter.com/GPiDhHmZh0
— Emily Lewis (@lou_lou_505) December 20, 2022
BA had nevertheless assured its customers that the technical issues they are not going to affect current flights.
Another passenger complained about the uncertainty of the situation: “It’s midnight and we can’t go to a hotel because BA won’t officially cancel the flight. We don’t know for sure if or when the flight will leave and there’s a plane full of people that flew from the Cayman.”
After waiting 4 hours… Staff telling us #BritishAirways flight 202 from BOS is cancelled, other staff saying it isn’t?! we have now left the gate and TSA won’t let us back in while BA staff all scratch their heads. How is this a business!?! @British_Airways @SkyNews @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/6HTDOB89GJ
— Jazzyjazzman (@Jazzyjazzman1) December 20, 2022
BA is known for problems with its IT systems. A series of missteps in recent years have hurt the company’s reputation and its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest came in March and caused delays at London’s Heathrow Airport.
After waiting 4 hours… Staff telling us #BritishAirways flight 202 from BOS is cancelled, other staff saying it isn’t?! we have now left the gate and TSA won’t let us back in while BA staff all scratch their heads. How is this a business!?! @British_Airways @SkyNews @BBCNews pic.twitter.com/6HTDOB89GJ
— Jazzyjazzman (@Jazzyjazzman1) December 20, 2022
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.