Heathrow officials said that the technical issue also delayed arriving passengers who were stuck on aircraft while waiting for gates to be allocated for arriving flights. Automated baggage operations were also affected by the glitch adding to waiting times for luggage to arrive on the carousel.
This is the third time in recent memory that British Airways has experienced a massive IT failure. In August of 2019, a glitch involving online check-in and flight departures caused the cancelation of more than 100 flights while delaying a further 200. The other big IT failure occurred during the busy spring bank holiday period in 2017 when a major computer meltdown forced the cancelation of 726 flights leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded.
