Passengers from Brighton and Hove were among thousands of people stranded by a computer meltdown which grounded dozens of British Airways flights today (Saturday 27 May).
BA said: “Following the major IT system failure experienced earlier today, with regret we have had to cancel all flights leaving from Heathrow and Gatwick for the rest of today.
“We are working hard to get our customers who were due to fly today on to the next available flights over the course of the rest of the weekend. Those unable to fly will be offered a full refund.
“The system outage has also affected our call centres and our website but we will update customers as soon as we are able to.
“Most long-haul flights due to land in London tomorrow (Sunday 28 May) are expected to arrive as normal and we are working to restore our services from tomorrow although some delays and disruption may continue into Sunday.
“We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers during this busy holiday period.”
Passengers flying to or from a European Union member state – or Iceland, Norway or Switzerland – are covered by the EU’s rules covering delays and cancellations.
These allow for refunds – and compensation of up to 600 euros – as well as food and drink and access to phone calls and emails during delays of two or more hours.
Passengers who are delayed overnight should be given somewhere to stay, including transport between the airport and hotel and back again.