British Airways Cancels ALL Short-Haul Flights And Asks Heathrow to Block Passengers From Entering Airport

After British Airways was forced to cancel all of its European short-haul services until midday on Saturday, the airline asked the airport to block passengers from entering its home at Terminal 5.

The airline canceled more than 200 flights after it suffered a massive IT outage that shut down critical operational systems for more than five hours.

There were reports that a Russian-backed cyberattack was behind the British Airways outage. The witnesses said the airline was running on paper after staff had to switch to manual processes.

Thousands of passengers had been stranded and had nowhere to go so the airport was asked to restrict access. There were fears that Terminal 5 could become too crowded.

British Airways told passengers to stay away from the airport because there wouldn't be staff to help with rebooking. Passengers were urged to use the airline's website to explore rebooking options.

The consumer rights campaigner cautioned that taking a voucher would make it impossible for BA to fulfill its duty of care responsibilities.

We have backup plans in place so that customers can still check-in at the airport this evening, as we are working as quickly as possible to resolve things. The airline said in an email that they are doing everything they can to get as many of their flights away as possible.

We are sorry to our customers, it has been a difficult week, and we can only apologize for any further disruption they may experience this evening. We are doing everything we can to provide up to date information.

The baggage was starting to pile up, along with the entire short-haul operation being wiped out. Thousands of passengers were forced to wait days for their luggage after a winter storm.

As an international flight attendant, Maszczynski worked for the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying for a well-known European airline during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Matt is an expert in passenger experience and human-centered stories. Constantly keeping an ear close to the ground, Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage is often relied upon by some of the biggest names in journalism.