British Airways faced significant disruptions on November 18, 2024, when customers were slammed with delays due to what the airline described as a "technical issue" affecting its operations. The chaos began just after 5 PM GMT, leading to passengers at multiple airports, including Heathrow—BA's main hub—standing for hours without clear updates on their flight statuses.
Reports flooded social media from frustrated travelers, some stuck on the tarmac, waiting for their planes to take off. For example, one passenger tweeted from Verona about being left out in the cold for what felt like ages before getting any information on their delayed flight. Others had similar experiences, with travelers stuck for hours without help or answers from the airline.
British Airways stated, "We’ve apologized to customers for delays to their flights and ensured they were able to reach their destinations as planned." Fortunately, the airline reported no cancellations resulting from the outages as they worked to resolve the glitches.
Travel expert Simon Calder suggested the disruption could have affected tens of thousands of passengers, estimating delays of 1 to 2 hours for the majority of the impacted flights. The problems appeared to ripple beyond the UK, impacting international routes and domestic flights alike.
Downdetector, which tracks complaints from users, noted a surge of issues on BA’s website around the time disruptions started, indicating the breadth of the problem affecting their systems. Passengers from numerous cities, including Hamburg, Naples, and Lyon, joined the chorus of complaints, voicing frustrations on platforms like X (previously Twitter).
The situation did seem to improve later, with BA stating they were bringing it under control. Yet, concerns loomed over potential knock-on effects for flights scheduled on the following day, sparking worries about missed connections as passengers faced delays across terminals. Communication issues reportedly prevented pilots from accessing loading data and had them struggle to obtain updates from their teams.
"British Airways appears to have had another significant IT outage," one irked passenger noted, humorously describing the captain’s passive-aggressive remarks during their grounded flight as tensions mounted. A spokesperson from Heathrow airport confirmed they were aware of the issue and offered assistance to affected BA passengers, noting their own systems were functioning correctly.
This incident isn’t the first time British Airways has faced operational challenges tied to technology failures. Earlier, they had suffered major outages, even cancellations, due to IT issues, most memorably back in 2017, when more than 75,000 passengers were impacted after one of their data centers faced outages, causing widespread disruptions. The airline took the operator of the data center, CBRE, to court but ended up settling without any admission of liability.
More recently, similar technical troubles had hit the airline last year, resulting in hundreds of canceled flights. Yet, as the disruption from the latest issue unfolded, BA took steps to mitigate the fallout. By late Monday, the airline conveyed their systems were returning to normal, but the delays for travelers and the baggage of uncertainties remained palpable.
While British Airways attempted to alleviate passenger woes, many were left pondering the reliability of air travel amid this era defined by technological advancements yet oftentimes marred by unpredictable failures. The incident has reignited conversations surrounding the need for enhanced IT systems within major airlines, ensuring passenger safety and efficient operation across their vast networks.
Meanwhile, BA's plans to modernize its IT infrastructure are still underway, with the airline pledging to invest around £7 billion (or approximately $9 billion) to migrate 700 IT systems to the cloud. It remains to be seen how these upgrades will prevent future outages and improve customer satisfaction amid post-pandemic travel surges.
With the aviation industry still recovering from years of turbulence, all eyes remain on how British Airways and others might develop solutions to bolster their systems for both operational integrity and to maintain the trust of travelers reliant on air travel.
