British Airways flights grounded at London Heathrow airport after IT failure

Passengers at Heathrow airport in February, when British Airways had another flight-grounding technical problem. PA

British Airways was investigating a technical issue on Wednesday after customers complained online about a disruption in its computer systems and as the departures board for London Heathrow showed flights being delayed.

“We’re investigating and working hard to resolve a technical issue and apologise for the inconvenience. We will provide further updates as quickly as possible,” the British Airways verified account said on Twitter.

The airline and airport have both apologised to customers and Heathrow’s online departure board showed flights were delayed, with a few cancelled.

BA was hit by a “significant technical issue” in February that led to a number of cancellations and disruptions that took many hours to resolve.

The airline’s customer service Twitter handle received many complaints.

“Hey @British_Airways, our captain has tried to call, email to let you know your IT systems are down so your whole fleet is grounded. Just tweeting you in case you hadn’t heard,” Twitter user Christian Hernandez said.

The airline apologised to customers who were inconvenienced by the problem, saying it had affected its operation for “a short time”.

It later confirmed the glitch had been resolved and it was working to help passengers whose journeys had been disrupted.

The trouble for Heathrow and BA is the latest in a string of technical problems that have caused patience-busting queues, cancellations and delays.

Heathrow Airport said: “A technical issue which affected British Airways this afternoon has now been resolved.

“We’re working with our airport partners to assist passengers whose journeys have been disrupted and have deployed additional resource in our terminals.

“Passengers are still advised to check their flight status with British Airways before travelling to the airport due to a number of resulting cancellations.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Last week, Heathrow Airport was hit by a morning of chaos, capping a week of delays at check-in and arrival areas that prompted many complaints and widespread criticism.

Passengers who landed at the London airport on Friday morning reported being held on planes on the runway while others had to wait for more than an hour for their bags to be unloaded from aircraft.

In February, BA cancelled flights from Heathrow as it struggled to fix “technical issues” that affected its booking and check-in systems.