British Airways fixes IT glitch which saw more than 100 flights axed

An IT glitch which caused the cancellation of more than 100 British Airways flights has been fixed, the airline said.

Tens of thousands of passengers attempting to travel to or from Heathrow, Gatwick or London City were affected by the problem on Wednesday.

Some 117 flights due to depart or arrive at Heathrow were axed.

British Airways could face a compensation bill in excess of £8 million if all those affected claim what they are entitled to under European Union rules.

The airline said in a statement: “We have resolved the temporary systems issue from this morning which affected a number of our flights today.

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

“Our teams have been working tirelessly to get the vast majority of customers on their way, with most of our flights departing.”

The statement added that flights are “returning to normal” but warned there may be some “knock-on operational disruption”.

Passengers were urged to check ba.com for the latest flight information before going to the airport.

There were long queues of passengers at Heathrow and error messages on the BA app as some services lagged more than five hours behind schedule.

The airline was forced to use back-up and manual systems in a bid to cope with the problem.