British Airways suffers IT crash, cancels flights

British Airways has cancelled all flights from London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports as a global IT failure causes severe disruption for travellers.

The airline said  it has suffered a “major IT systems failure”  and  apologised to its passengers.

BA said terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick have become extremely congested and it is cancelling all flights from the airports until 6 p.m. (1700GMT). It is urging passengers not to go to the airports.

Earlier, passengers at Heathrow reported long lines at check-in counters and flight delays.

BA has not said what is causing the computer problem, but said it was working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Passengers at Heathrow Airport reported long lines at check-in counters and flight delays. One posted a picture on Twitter of BA staff writing gate numbers on a white board.

“We’ve tried all of the self-check-in machines. None were working, apart from one,” said Terry Page, booked on a flight to Texas. “There was a huge queue for it and it later transpired that it didn’t actually work, but you didn’t discover that until you got to the front.”

The problem comes on a holiday weekend, when thousands of Britons are travelling.