£80m meltdown bill

The IT meltdown that left thousands of passengers stranded at Heathrow and Gatwick last month will cost British Airways nearly £80m ($102m), according to parent company International Airlines Group chief executive Willie Walsh.

Reporting to the airline’s annual shareholders meeting, he said: “On May 27 British Airways suffered a power failure to its primary data centre which led to severe disruption to its flights.

“Our initial assessment of the gross costs of the disruption is in the order of £80m. We will update the market at the appropriate time with more details.”

Last month’s breakdown following a power surge that caused the whole IT system to crash left BA with facing three days of disruption at Heathrow and Gatwick. The company had to cancel all flights from the two airports, making thousands of people spend the night in the terminals.

Walsh apologised again for the incident, saying “I know it was a dreadful experience for many of our customers”. He said BA had launched an investigation “to learn from the experience”.

www.britishairways.com

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