British Airways System Outage Causes Flight Cancellations at London Airports

*Update: The British Airways technical issue experienced on the morning of Wednesday 7th August has now been resolved.

"We understand this has been incredibly frustrating for passengers and offer our apologies. Passengers should continue to check with British Airways on the status of their flight before travelling to the airport," said British Airways in a statement.


British Airways experienced an IT system outage, which has resulted in dozens of flight cancellations and delays across London airports.

The IT issue has affected British Airways flights from Heathrow, Gatwick and London City airports, inconveniencing thousands of travelers during the peak summer holiday season. This is the third major system failure British Airways has experienced over the span of two years, and this most recent issue comes just as the airline is struggling to cope with an impending pilot strike, which is expected to take place later this month.  

“We are very sorry to our customers for the disruption to their travel plans. We are working as quickly as possible to resolve a systems issue which has resulted in a number of cancellations and delays today,” said British Airways in a statement on Twitter.

“A number of flights continue to operate, but we are advising customers to check BA.com for the latest flight information before coming to the airport, and to leave additional time. We are offering customers booked on short-haul services departing from Heathrow, Gatwick and London City today, the opportunity to rebook to another day.”

Customers scheduled to travel Wednesday on short-haul flights departing from one of the affected London airports can rebook to travel on another day between Aug. 8 and 13.

The airline also advises those whose flights were canceled not to travel to any of the affected airports.