Air passengers facing further disruption following world IT outage
23 July 2024, 01:08
Nearly 7,000 flights were cancelled across the globe on Friday.
Passengers continue to face disruption at airports on Saturday as airlines reel from the impact of the global IT outage.
Nearly 7,000 flights were cancelled across the globe on Friday, including 408 to and from the UK.
As of 10am on Saturday, the UK had seen 23 departing and 25 inbound flights cancelled, according to figures from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Travellers at Heathrow Airport were experiencing long queues on Saturday morning and reported problems with checking in for British Airways flights.
Chris Shaw, 61, a consultant based in London, boarded a replacement British Airways flight from Heathrow to Berlin at 8.45am on Saturday after his original afternoon flight to the German city was cancelled on Friday.
While at Heathrow Airport, he took a video of several passengers standing in a long ‘seek assistance queue’ as the British Airways app did not allow passengers to check in, nor did the automated check-in desk.
“The queue was so long we would have missed the flight, which was clearly overbooked,” he said.
“So I pushed in and insisted to be dealt with. The flight was absolutely full, so if I’d not pushed in, we wouldn’t have even got seats.
“We arrived at the gate with 20 mins to spare.
“Security was excellent and swift, but my criticism of Heathrow was the lack of information and staff very poorly briefed.
“There was no prioritisation of urgent flight needs nor even notice boards telling passengers where to go or what to do.”
Long check-in queues could also be seen at Gatwick Airport on Saturday.
Charles, 50, from the Midlands, said he was glad he was in a queue to leave the country rather than arriving to the UK.
“I’m glad it’s because we’re going out,” he said.
“It’d be different if we were going back.”
He said his British Airways flight to Jamaica was in three hours, but he arrived early to get through the queues.
“Because of the situation yesterday on the news we just took a bit more time just to get here,” he said.
“I’m glad we did, to be honest with you.”
He said he believed the long queues on Saturday morning had been caused by everyone on long haul flights arriving at the airport early.
Renato Martinez, 18, from London, said his mother made him arrive four hours before their flight at Gatwick Airport.
Asked if he had given himself lots of time to make his flight, he said: “My mum has.
“My mum has given us lots of time.
“Every time, she loves coming early.”
He said he was flying to Ecuador to visit his family there.
He added he expected the check-in queue to take about 45 minutes in total.
“It’s going quicker than I expected,” he said.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said IT systems at airports were “back up and working normally”.
She said: “We are in constant communication with industry.
“There continues to be no known safety or security issues arising from the outage.
“Some delays and a small number of cancelled flights are expected today.”
