‘Tens of thousands’ of British Airways passengers face delays after computer glitch WORLDWIDE sees planes grounded
The glitch means British Airways staff are now using handwritten records to manually carry out flight check-ins

FURIOUS British Airways passengers are facing massive delays at airports around the world as a computer glitch hampers flight check-ins.
Travellers are complaining of queues at airports including Gatwick, Edinburgh, Heathrow, Helsinki, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto and Mexico City.
A BA spokeswoman confirmed passengers are being checked in at Heathrow and Gatwick but said the process would be "a bit slower than usual".
The delays are thought to have affected tens of thousands of passengers on at least 100 flights spread across 27 airports.
Alex Kintzer, a passenger on board a San Francisco to London Heathrow flight, was handed a letter by BA staff apologising for the delay.
It read: "At this time we are experiencing problems with the computer systems. As a result, in order to continue to check-in, in the absence of the computer system, we will be using a manual fallback process.
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"Once we begin, check-in will be slower than normal, as information has to be recorded by hand. We are unable to ascertain a time when we might expect the systems to be functional again.
"Whilst we endeavour to provide as close to a normal service as possible there are some aspects that we will not be able to fulfil, such as seat changes after check-in.
"Once again, please accept our sincere apologies for the longer than normal waiting times at check-in today."
A woman on a Helsinki to Heathrow flight tweeted she had been issued "manual boarding passes... And by manual I mean handwritten".
Another passenger, flying from Edinburgh to London Heathrow this morning, told The Sun Online they were delayed for over an hour.
Staff at the check-in desk had only one working computer as the rest kept shutting down, forcing the air steward to log in repeatedly, they said.
The passenger added: "It was a bit of a shambles.
"People were getting irritated behind me but the lady in front had been standing one from the desk for 30 mins and I had to look after her as she became faint.
"It took them all their time to get her a chair and some water - although to be fair they were dealing with irate customers and a computer shutdown.
"To top it all off, then the bags were being manually checked whilst we were on the plane. Will be glad when I get to Heathrow."
Rod Gillies, who was travelling from Glasgow to Orlando, Florida via Gatwick, said staff at check-in looked confused by the problems.
He said: "I don't think anyone knew what they were doing. All the women were on the desk but they were all shrugging their shoulders and shaking their heads."
Rod told The Sun Online his group were delayed for two hours, but managed to make it to Gatwick in time for their leg to Florida.
"They said that there had been some IT issues but nothing beyond that. It was a bit of a shambles, I don't think that the staff were that interested in resolving it, certainly not at check-in."
Passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5 reported waits of about 45 minutes to check in, while some in Newcastle were forced to remove their own luggage from the plane.
Elaine and Paul Barnett, who had come from Sheffield to travel to Sardinia, said the process had taken "longer than usual" and they had been required to give extra details once they reached the desk.
"You really have to get here early and expect that it's busy," Elaine said.
IS BA'S NEW CHECK-IN SOFTWARE TO BLAME?
The airline's new check in system "FLY" has been plagued by problems since it was rolled out earlier this year.
It is designed to manage all aspects of a customer's check-in, including seat allocation and luggage.
Examples of delays-causing IT failures in June and July were blamed on the software, though it is not clear if it is the same issue that caused today's problems.
In July, a BA insider told The Sun: “It’s going to be a summer of holiday chaos. The system isn’t robust enough for an airport like Heathrow. It’s a nightmare."
They added it had been crashing “all the time” since it was introduced.
In one instance a Honeymooning couple were kicked off a flight to Japan because the system had not correctly booked them on their plane.
Ewan Crawford, of Glasgow, said he was at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
He tweeted: "Never a good sign when they deliver water to the gate! Waiting at ORD for @British_Airways 296. Worldwide computer outage apparently! Hmm."
Staff with clipboards were writing manual boarding passes for passengers, one delayed traveller at Seattle Airport said.
Matthew Walker had been waiting for more than two hours to board his flight back to Heathrow.
The 29-year-old financial analyst, who lives in London but is originally from Australia, checked in online before arriving to catch his flight.
However, he said staff on the ground could not access their computer systems to see which passengers had gone through security.
Speaking from the airport, he said: "People were lining up, some had already checked in and got through security, but others, when this thing happened, whatever it is, were stuck in the check-in queue.
"So they (the staff) have the problem that they didn't know who had already gone through the gate because all the systems literally just had a meltdown, basically."
Karen Reyburn, at Phoenix Airport, said it took her six hours to finally board her flight after previously being told she would have a "10 minute wait".
A BA spokesperson told The Sun Online: "We are checking in customers at Heathrow and Gatwick Airport this morning, although it is taking longer than usual.
"We would encourage customers to check in online before they reach the airport. "We are sorry for the delay to their journeys.".
The airline did not respond to requests for details on how many airports were affected.
AIRPORTS AFFECTED WORLDWIDE
Heathrow, England
Gatwick, England
Newcastle, England
Edinburgh, Scotland
Glasgow, Scotland
Toronto, Canada
Vancouver, Canada
Orlando, US
Washington, US
Phoenix, US
Chicago O'Hare, US
Denver, US
Seattle-Tacoma, US
Las Vegas, US
San Diego, US
San Francisco, US
Atlanta, US
Grand Bahama, Bahamas
Mexico City, Mexico
Helsinki, Finland
Amsterdam Airport, Amsterdam
Vienna, Italy
Rome, Italy
Berlin, Germany
Durban, South Africa
Zurich, Switzerland
Hyderabad, India
LONDON CITY FLIGHTS ALSO GROUNDED
The British Airways chaos at Gatwick and Heathrow this morning was compounded by a protest at London City.
Flights from the airport were grounded after Black Lives Matter protesters took over the runway to protest "the UK’s environmental impact on black people”.
Activists managed to get across the Royal Docks to block planes from taking off in a major security breach.
London City Airport spokesman Andrew Scott told The Sun: “We’ve currently got the runway closed due to protesters on site. Obviously the police are present.”
He added: “There are no flights departing or arriving at present.”
The BA problems come less than a month after thousands of Delta Airlines passengers were delayed after a system wide computer failure.
The issue grounded all of the airline's planes - some 427 flights - while most of its 6,000 scheduled flights for the day were heavily delayed.
Atlanta Airlines is one of the three biggest in the world. It blamed a power outage at its Georgia headquarters for the problem.
Have you been caught in the British Airways delays? Contact corey.charlton@the-sun.co.uk
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