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British Airways: Stranded passengers charged thousands for hotel rooms and warned disruption could last days

- AFP or licensors
- AFP or licensors

The British Airways IT crash has caused unprecedented disruption for the airline which could last for several days, experts say.

Thousands of holidaymakers were stranded after BA flights from Heathrow and Gatwick were grounded on Saturday.

It is feared that it could take days for services to return to normal and clear the backlog of passengers.

With some BA services already cancelled this morning, both BA and Heathrow warned passengers not to come to the airport without a confirmed booking for a flight today.

A BA statement read: "Work continues to restore all of our IT systems but we expect some further disruption today.  We are aiming to operate the majority of services from Heathrow and a near normal schedule at Gatwick."

It said travellers affected would be rebooked or have their ticket price refunded, but a spokesman said compensation would be looked at on a "case by case" basis.

British Airways have started sending passengers' luggage back to them by courier, opening up the possibility that holidaymakers still hoping to get away this weekend will be in London even as their bags are driven to their home addresses elsewhere.

It comes as hotels surrounding the airports charged extortionate prices to stranded holiday makers with some charging between £1,000 to £2,500 a room for the night.

A view of Terminal 5 departure lounge, at London's Heathrow airport after flights were canceled - Credit: Emily Puddifer Twitter
A view of Terminal 5 departure lounge, at London's Heathrow airport after flights were canceled Credit: Emily Puddifer Twitter

Air industry consultant John Strickland said: "There's a massive knock-on effect.

"Customers and from the airline's point of view - manpower, dealing with the backlog of aircraft out of position, parking spaces for the aircraft - it's a challenge and a choreographic nightmare."

He added that the problems with BA's IT systems last year were not on the scale of this issue.

"They were bedding in a new check-in system last year and there were teething problem but not of the magnitude of this," Mr Strickland said.

This morning, departure boards showed flights departing from Gatwick early on Sunday, however several flights from Heathrow were cancelled.

Passengers who had flights cancelled had little choice but to stay at the airport or check in to local hotels charging high prices - Credit: Reuters
Passengers who had flights cancelled had little choice but to stay at the airport or check in to local hotels charging high prices Credit: Reuters

A Heathrow spokesman said "delays and cancellations of British Airways flights are expected today", while the airline said there would be "some knock-on disruption to our schedules on Sunday, as aircraft and crews are out of position around the world".

Heathrow advised passengers whose flights were cancelled on Saturday not to travel to the airport unless they have already rebooked.

Passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5 - Credit: Emily Wilson
Passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5 Credit: Emily Wilson

The disruption has been compounded by the timing of the outage coinciding with a bank holiday weekend and school half-term holidays.

"Heathrow ordinarily would be busy but would be exacerbated by the bank holiday, half-term and Ascension Day, which is celebrated in a lot of Europe," Mr Strickland added.

"Even if they could quickly get the show back on the road, which is a big uncertainty, disruption could run into several days."

Malcolm Ginsberg, editor in chief at Business Travel News, said: "This is a very, very serious situation, one that will not be solved overnight, even once they get the technology aspects of it done - it's going to be three or four days.

"There's only full aircraft at this time of year and there will be aircraft in the wrong positions.

"Of course I feel sorry for the passengers but for the staff as well who have got to deal with it all."

Photo taken by Cheryl Sullivan of queues at British Airways check in desks at Heathrow Airport - Credit: Twitter
Photo taken by Cheryl Sullivan of queues at British Airways check in desks at Heathrow Airport Credit: Twitter

The chaos happened just after 11am on Saturday when the company's unreliable new IT system crashed worldwide for the sixth time in a year.

After thousands of furious complaints from customers left in the dark about their flights, bags and compensation, the company released a video online of CEO Alex Cruz apologising to passengers.

In it he said the global IT failure was down to a problem with power supply and that technical teams were working "tirelessly" to get systems back up and running.

Flight delay compensation | How much can I claim?
Flight delay compensation | How much can I claim?

 

A man who was caught up in the delays at Heathrow airport after British Airways' systems outage said the airline had lost his and dozens of other passengers' bags by the time his flight landed.

Terry Page, 28, from London, flew from Terminal 5 to Fort Worth, Texas.

On arrival he and "about 50" others were eventually told that BA did not know where the bags were, and were told they were hoping they would receive them on Monday.

"They said nothing," he claimed. "I saw everyone else filling out forms and I asked what it was about.

"It's affected so many people. Some 80-year-old lady was standing around waiting for announcements, et cetera - and she fell over," he said.

"We helped her up and she said 'I'm just so tired'.

"It's been a terrible, terrible day"' Mr Page added.

Travellers wait stranded at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 after British Airways flights where cancelled at Heathrow - Credit: AFP
Travellers wait stranded at Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 after British Airways flights where cancelled at Heathrow Credit: AFP

"Strangely we were the last flight to leave the airport and there were 15 unclaimed bags lying around," he said.

"There was a lady with her baby stranded, it was awful."

Mr Page said he had been planning a road trip with a work colleague on arrival, but believed he would have to delay it until he was reunited with his luggage.

"I've had to go to a petrol garage and buy non-brand deodorant and toothpaste.

"I feel like a 15-year-old kid who's run away from home!"