Flight cancellations: British Airways was again struggling with computer problems

Airbus A321 (Photo: Simon Rein/Airport Nuremberg).
Airbus A321 (Photo: Simon Rein/Airport Nuremberg).

Flight cancellations: British Airways was again struggling with computer problems

Airbus A321 (Photo: Simon Rein/Airport Nuremberg).
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Virtually nothing works in aviation without EDP systems and computers. This was shown by a recent IT breakdown at British Airways, which this time mainly affected short-haul routes. On Thursday, the company had to cancel official information after 128 flights.

It's not the first time British Airways has suffered from IT problems. This time the effects are comparatively small, because on Thursday “only” 128 flights had to be canceled without replacement. It hit the carrier and subsequently its passengers harder in the past. In the USA, several carriers have had IT problems independently of one another in recent months, which have even led to temporary grounding.

All these events show how dependent commercial civil aviation is on functioning computer systems and servers. Some passengers are of the opinion that they could then simply check in "manually", i.e. with a ballpoint pen and, if necessary, seat stickers as in the past. But it's not that easy, because if you don't even have access to the bookings, printed booking confirmations won't help either. Irrespective of this: All incidents, including the most recent one at British Airways, allow us to assume that some IT companies have done too little to prevent failure or that they might have insufficient fallback measures for the first event.

Days when the flight plan gets mixed up also affect the time afterwards. It is therefore not surprising that British Airways also had to cancel numerous other flights from the London Heathrow hub on Saturday. This is due, for example, to the fact that the machines required for the flight are at a completely different airport or that the crew may be over their maximum duty time. The reasons can be very different. In addition, there is the fact that “new passengers” are booked for the following days, but not all of those affected by the cancellations of the previous days have yet been taken to their destinations. Especially at busy times like the Pentecost holidays, this can take several days and so one or the other holiday falls through.

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Editor of this article:

Amely Mizzi is Executive Assistant at Aviation Direct Malta in San Pawl il-Baħar. She previously worked in the Aircraft and Vessel Financing division at a banking group. She is considered a linguistic talent and speaks seven languages ​​fluently. She prefers to spend her free time in Austria on the ski slopes and in summer on Mediterranean beaches, practically on her doorstep in Gozo.
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Amely Mizzi is Executive Assistant at Aviation Direct Malta in San Pawl il-Baħar. She previously worked in the Aircraft and Vessel Financing division at a banking group. She is considered a linguistic talent and speaks seven languages ​​fluently. She prefers to spend her free time in Austria on the ski slopes and in summer on Mediterranean beaches, practically on her doorstep in Gozo.
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