At least 42 British Airways (BA) flights were cancelled due to technical issues leaving thousands of travellers stranded at London Heathrow.
The cancellations resulted from the “knock-on effect of a technical issue” which caused staff to be placed in the wrong location, according to BBC.
Over 16,000 passengers were affected by the cancellations, which mainly impacted flights departing from or arriving at Heathrow. Some passengers have also been unable to check-in online.
On Thursday, BA apologised for cancelling dozens of flights at Heathrow. BA said in a statement on Friday:
While the vast majority of our flights continue to operate today, we have cancelled some of our short-haul flights from Heathrow due to the knock-on effect of a technical issue that we experienced yesterday.
The cancellations occurred on the busiest day for UK air travel since 2019, with more than 3,000 flights planned. This is partly due to families travelling for the half-term break. Affected passengers were the option to rebook an alternative flight or request a refund.
BA has faced IT problems in the past, including a major breakdown in 2017 that left 75,000 passengers stranded over a holiday weekend. The recent incident has led to criticism from customers and pledges from the carrier to improve its services in the future.
The cancellations occurred amidst a three-day strike by security guards at Heathrow Airport over pay, though the airport has stated that its operations will not be affected.