Advertisement

Heathrow cancellations: More chaos at London airport as British Airways is forced to ground flights over IT problems

Heathrow: British Airways was forced to cancel flights (file photo): Getty Images
Heathrow: British Airways was forced to cancel flights (file photo): Getty Images

British Airways has been forced to halt a number of short haul flights at Heathrow Airport after an IT system failure.

The cancellations come after the same London airport was brought to a standstill when a fire alarm was triggered on the airfield on Wednesday.

BA said it was working to resolve the issue “urgently” and apologised to those affected by the problems with the "supplier IT system".

A spokesman said: "As with a number of airlines, we are experiencing some disruption at Heathrow a result of an issue with a supplier IT system.

"We are working with our supplier to urgently resolve the matter and are sorry for the disruption to our customers' travel plans."

A fire engine was seen travelling across the airfield to the control tower earlier (@seren75)
A fire engine was seen travelling across the airfield to the control tower earlier (@seren75)

It is believed the problem has not hit all of the IT systems used by the airline and most are working as normal.

Virgin Atlantic said it is not affected by any IT issues at Heathrow.

The failure is a blow as airlines gear up for the peak holiday period.

And it added to the earlier disruptions caused by the fire alert at Heathrow's air traffic control tower.

The alert disrupted services at Terminal 5 for BA, and briefly forced flights to be diverted to other airports.

A Heathrow Airport spokesman said the alarm "impacted operation of the airfield for a short while" on Wednesday afternoon.

A British Airways spokesman said: "As a result of the temporary closure of Heathrow Airport's air traffic control tower earlier this afternoon, a small number of flights from all airlines were forced to divert to alternative airports.

"We are doing all we can to keep any knock-on disruption to our services to a minimum and are sorry for the disruption to our customers' travel plans. "

A Gatwick Airport spokesman said: "We only had two diverts from Heathrow Airport as a result of the earlier action - one from Glasgow at 5pm and the other was from St Petersburgh at 5.10pm."