British Airways said many of its computer systems are running again as the carrier pushed to recover from a massive technology failure that disrupted hundreds of flights and stranded thousands of passengers worldwide over the past two days.
“All my British Airways colleagues on the ground or in the air are pulling out all the stops to get our operation back up to normal as quickly as we possibly can,” Chief Executive Officer Alex Cruz said Sunday in a video message from the airline’s operations center near London’s Heathrow airport. “We are not there yet. But we are doing our very best to sort things out for you.”
A total of 115 British Airways flights, or 13 percent of services, were canceled by 3:30 p.m. U.K. time on Sunday while 311 services, or 35 percent, were delayed, according to Flight Aware, a Houston-based plane-tracking service. The carrier scrapped a combined 418 flights at Heathrow and Gatwick airport, south of London, on Saturday and 568 were delayed, the research company said. British Airways has declined to specify figures for flights or customers affected.
The airline plans to fly all its long-haul departures scheduled at Heathrow, but the aftereffects of yesterday’s disruption will lead to delays, Cruz said. Services from Gatwick were operating “near-normal” though subject to postponements, the airline said.
