British Airways: Services set to resume after 25,000 passengers hit by mass cancellations

British Airways is hoping to run a near-normal operation on Thursday after at least 25,000 passengers had their flights cancelled on Wednesday.

A total of 134 short-haul flights to and from Heathrow were cancelled after what BA described as a “temporary systems issue” that brought its operation at Terminal 5 to a near-standstill.

Six of the usual destinations selected for cancellations – Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Glasgow, Nice and Zurich – each saw six arrivals and departures from Heathrow grounded.

“Mid-haul” flights to Athens, Larnaca, Istanbul and St Petersburg were also cancelled.

Keith McDougall, whose parents-in-law arrived from the UK for a connection at Heathrow, said: “Their connecting flight to Vienna was cancelled.

“The treatment at Heathrow was awful. All the BA staff wanted to do was hand out a letter and get people to leave the airport.

“No one at the desks could rebook flights and the phone number everyone was referred to, could also do nothing.”

A spokesperson for British Airways said: “Our teams have been working tirelessly to get the vast majority of customers on their way, with most of our flights departing.

“We apologise to all our customers caught up in the disruption, and appreciate how frustrating their experience has been.

“Our flights are returning to normal, however there may be some knock-on operational disruption as a result of the issue earlier.”

Ten flights to and from Gatwick were grounded.

Only a handful of flight cancellations and substantial delays from Heathrow have been posted for Thursday.

A Heathrow-Dusseldorf round-trip is also grounded.

Delays of about two hours are expected for early flights to and from Basel and Paris.

The cost to BA of another IT failure is likely to exceed £10m – in lost revenue, care costs and compensation stipulated under European air passengers’ rights rules.