Heathrow and Gatwick airports have cancelled flights and passengers face long delays as the global IT outage continues to wreak havoc on UK air travel. Almost 7,000 flights were cancelled worldwide on Friday (July 19), including 408 to and from the UK.
By 10am on Saturday morning, 23 departing and 25 arriving flights had been cancelled in the UK, according to figures from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Travellers faced long queues at Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning (20 July) and reported problems checking in for British Airways flights.
Chris Shaw, 61, a consultant based in London, boarded a replacement British Airways flight from Heathrow to Berlin at 8.45am on Saturday after his original afternoon flight to the German city was cancelled on Friday.
READ MORE: Cybersecurity experts explain possible cause of global IT outage as airports, banks and trains affected
While at Heathrow Airport, he filmed several passengers standing in a long queue seeking assistance as they were unable to check in using the British Airways app and the automated check-in counter.
“The line was so long that we would have missed the flight, which was clearly overbooked,” he said. “So I pushed my way to the front and insisted on being checked in. The flight was completely full, and if I hadn’t pushed my way to the front, we wouldn’t have even gotten a seat. We got to the gate 20 minutes before departure.”
“Security was excellent and quick, but my criticism of Heathrow was the lack of information and very poor staff briefing. There was no prioritisation of urgent flight needs and not even noticeboards telling passengers where to go or what to do.”
“It would be different if we went back”
There were also long queues at check-in at Gatwick Airport on Saturday. Charles, 50, from the Midlands, said he was glad he was in a queue to leave the country rather than arrive in the UK.
“I’m glad we’re going out,” he said. “It would be different if we went back.”
He said his British Airways flight to Jamaica was in three hours, but he arrived early to get through the lines. “Because of the situation that was mentioned in the news yesterday, we just took a little bit more time to get here,” he said. “To be honest, I’m glad we did.”
He believed the long queues on Saturday morning were because all the long-haul flights arrived at the airport too early. Renato Martinez, 18, from London, said his mother had let him arrive at Gatwick Airport four hours before departure.
When asked if he gave himself enough time to catch his flight, he said, “My mom did. My mom gave us a lot of time. She likes to come early every time.”
He said he was flying to Ecuador to visit family there. He added that he expected the check-in line to last about 45 minutes in total. “It’s going faster than I expected,” he said.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said IT systems at airports were “back up and running normally”. She said: “We are in regular contact with industry. There remain no known safety issues arising from the outage. Some delays and a small number of cancelled flights are expected today.”
Get the latest travel news from London’s roads, trains and buses with our new London Traffic and Travel newsletter. You can register HERE.
