BA faces huge compensation bill following IT glitch
British Airways could be facing a mammoth compensation bill following a computer glitch that knocked out its check-in systems at several airports, mainly in the UK and the US.
An estimated 26 airports were affected by the IT problem on Monday and Tuesday, which meant that staff had to check in customers manually and issue hand-written boarding passes, causing flight delays.
BA has denied the problem affected its airports worldwide, but some flights are understood to have suffered knock-on delays.
Flight compensation specialist Bott & Co estimates that 75,000 passengers were directly affected by the computer glitch.
It says ‘hundreds of thousands’ more might have been hit by knock-on delays.
A spokesman said: "The amount of passengers suffering from the knock-on effects is difficult to estimate, but could easily be in the hundreds of thousands."
However, only those whose flights were cancelled or delayed by three hours or more would be entitled to compensation of between £210 and £510 each under EU regulation 261, and then only if the airline was considered to be at fault.
BA rolled out a new check-in system ‘Fly’ earlier this year, but this is the second time it has caused major problems following a software failure in July.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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