British Airways apologises after US flights grounded over technical issue

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British Airways apologises after US flights grounded over technical issue | Secret Flying

BA ‘technical issue’ delays long-haul flights.

 

At least 35 British Airways flights from North America and the Caribbean to London airports have been cancelled or seriously delayed overnight, with severe knock-on effects for other travellers in the days before Christmas.

 

The issue came to light when passengers due to depart the United States reported widespread delays and a lack of information from BA staff on the ground.

 

Six flights – from Boston, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, New York JFK and Washington DC – were cancelled outright.

 

Five more – from Toronto, Chicago, Boston, Nassau and Antigua – were delayed by around 24 hours.

 

The airline said problems with its third-party flight planning supplier were behind the delays.

 

Passengers said they had been sitting on planes parked on runways for hours, before being taken back to the terminal to be deplaned.

 

Many travellers took to social media to also complain about the lack of compensation.

 

 

A number of celebrities were also caught in the chaos, including actress Elizabeth Hurley, who tweeted that she was left “stranded at Antigua airport with no food or water” after her flight was “delayed for 20 hours”.

 

Due to a knock-on effect, dozens of flights departing Heathrow and Gatwick were also cancelled.

 

According to Flightradar24, only around 50% of British Airways flights were in the air at 6am.

 

In a statement, British Airways said: “Our teams have now resolved a temporary issue that affected some of our long-haul flight planning systems overnight, which resulted in delays to our schedule. We’re sorry for the disruption caused to our customers’ travel plans.”

 

In an earlier statement, the airline said: “Our flights due to depart the USA tonight are currently delayed due to a technical issue with our third-party flight planning supplier, which we are urgently investigating.

 

“We’re sorry for any disruption this will cause to our customers’ plans, our aim is for these flights to depart as quickly as possible.”