British Airways flights held on ground amid pilot software issue

BRITISH Airways (BA) services suffered hours-long delays after a failure involving flight-planning software led aircraft to be held on the ground.

Only around 50 per cent of BA flights were in the air in the early morning on Tuesday (Dec 20) compared with a week earlier, aircraft-tracking website Flightradar24 said. The airline confirmed that it had suffered a “technical issue” with its flight-planning system which was later resolved.

The problem stemmed from a failure of software that BA pilots access via Apple iPads, people familiar with the matter said. That system was in the process of being upgraded, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal concerns.

“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,” British Airways said in an emailed statement. “We’re sorry for the disruption caused to our customers’ travel plans.”

Passengers complained of the upheaval, with some saying on Twitter that operations appeared to have been disrupted for hours.

BA, a unit of IAG, which also controls Iberia of Spain and Ireland’s Aer Lingus, said there was no safety issue. Short-haul flights and long-haul services that had already departed weren’t affected.

The glitch is the latest in a series of software or hardware-based failures to afflict airlines and adds to challenges for BA that include staff shortages and a looming strike by Border Force officials at its London Heathrow base, just as the company enters one of the most intense travel periods of the year. BLOOMBERG