British Airways says 'technical issue' grounded flights in US and London

Passengers have reported being delayed for up to four hours

British Airways flights have been grounded due to a technical issue. Reuters

British Airways has said it faced a technical issue in the early hours of Tuesday morning, leading to flights being grounded in cities across the world. The issue has now been resolved.

The airline communicated with delayed passengers on Twitter, reiterating that delays were "due to a technical issue with our third-party flight planning supplier". The tweets ensured those affected the airline was "working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible".

Passengers reported delays from New York's John F Kennedy International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Orlando International Airport and Chicago O'Hare International Airport, as well as London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports. One Twitter user also reported delays from Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

Passengers also reported being grounded on board the aircraft for up to four hours.

A representative for British Airways told The National: “We’re experiencing delays to some of our flights due to a technical issue with our flight planning. We're sorry for the disruption to our customers' journey, we’re urgently investigating this so that they can travel as soon as possible.”

The airline also reiterated that it is not a safety issue, nor does it affect any flights that have already departed.

"We are keeping our customers up to date and providing them with refreshments," the representative said, adding that "the majority of short-haul flights are unaffected".

Around midday GST, the airline said that all issues had been resolved.

"Our teams have now resolved a temporary issue that affected some of our long-haul flight planning systems overnight, which resulted in delays to our schedule," the BA representative said. "We're sorry for the disruption caused to our customers' travel plans."