IT problems cause BA cancellations and delays at Heathrow

British Airways has been forced to cancel a number of flights at Heathrow Airport due to "significant technical issues". Passengers complained of delays and cancellations after hours of waiting at the airport.

The company's website and app were also inaccessible for several hours on Friday, leaving customers unable to book flights or check-in online. BA apologised to customers for what it said had been a "very difficult week".

It is understood the system issues are not a result of any cyber attack. BA said travellers could still check-in at the airport but said services would be "slower than usual". "We are working as quickly as possible to resolve things and we have back-up plans in place so that customers flying can still check-in at the airport," the airline said. "We will make decisions about our operation... as soon as we can and notify affected customers of any changes," it added.

The latest problems come after BA apologised for "letting people down" last week, when storms caused delays to unloading and loading luggage. Ed Hall, 54, a television executive from Woodstock in Oxfordshire, said he was stuck on a plane for more than an hour after landing at London Heathrow from Brussels on Friday.

He told the PA News agency the delay was because the crew could not access any IT systems to get a stand where passengers could depart the aircraft. He said there were issues before his BA flight took off.

'Luggage piling up'
"We couldn't take off as the pilot's system that calculates weight, loads and distribution went offline and we had to go back to the gate from the runway to get a (manual) copy sent from London," he said.

"BA is running on paper". Once Mr Hall made it off the plane, he said luggage was piling up from passengers stuck on other flights. Meanwhile, Sophia Prout, 33, from London, waited at Heathrow for her BA flight to Lisbon, which was scheduled for 19:05 GMT, until it was cancelled just after 21:00 on Friday.

She told PA News that it was "frustrating" that technical issues were ongoing as she had been waiting for a total of four hours after arriving early because she could not check in online. She said: "We're lucky that we can turn around and go home if the flight gets cancelled, but would be nice to get an idea of when/if we will take off."