British Airways IT outage leads to more canceled flights

British Airways was forced to cancel more of its short-haul flights from Heathrow on Friday following a computer outage that knocked out parts of its service on Thursday, just as UK travelers prepare for one of the busiest travel periods with school half-term holidays and an extended weekend. 

“While the vast majority of our flights continue to operate today, we have canceled some of our short-haul flights from Heathrow due to the knock-on effect of a technical issue that we experienced yesterday,” the airline said in a statement. 

British Airways didn’t specify the number of canceled flights. The carrier scrapped 128 services on Thursday and another 35 on Friday, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Heathrow Airport, where British Airways is based, said on Twitter that technical problems are impacting some departing and arriving flights.

The disruptions come just as travelers across Europe gear up for one of the biggest travel weekends, with many countries enjoying a public holiday on Monday. Airlines and airports have said they’re better prepared to handle the massive surge in bookings than they were a year ago when the post-pandemic rebound overwhelmed the industry and led to thousands of canceled flights, misplaced luggage, and long lines at airports from Heathrow to Amsterdam to Frankfurt.

Passengers complained on social media about long-wait times to reach customer service representatives and only being allowed to book an alternative flight 36 hours after they were originally due to depart. 

The last time British Airways suffered a technical glitch was in December when the company’s flight-planning software crashed, leading to aircraft being grounded for hours.