BA delays at LHR - Computer issue
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May 30 2017, 9:00am, The Times
BA accused of profiting from trapped passengers
British Airways was accused of exploiting passengers’ misery yesterday amid claims that travellers affected by the global IT crash at the weekend were made to pay for expensive upgrades to reach their destinations.
The airline faced criticism over its response to the chaos after it emerged that trapped passengers had to spend up to £800 to gain access to spare seats in premium economy cabins. It was suggested that BA may fail to reimburse in full passengers who had to travel with other airlines, despite some being landed with bills of up to £1,600.
Some of the 75,000 delayed passengers had been required to pay up to 55p a minute to access a BA hotline from their mobile phones to lodge claims for compensation.
The company admitted last night that almost 25,000 of the passengers had still not been able to travel and “a significant number” were without their luggage. BA restored its full flight schedule at Gatwick yesterday and was operating a full long-haul schedule at Heathrow.
However, about a tenth of short-haul flights from Heathrow were cancelled, affecting at least 15 departures for destinations such as Amsterdam, Belfast, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Milan and Stockholm. The airline said that it expected to operate a full schedule of long-haul and short-haul flights today.
Spanish-listed shares of International Airlines Group, which owns BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus, fell 2.5 per cent yesterday, with warnings that the company could face a compensation bill of up to £150 million.
Álex Cruz, BA’s chief executive, who is understood to be paid £830,000 a year, faced calls to resign. The Spanish businessman, who took up the post just over a year ago, broke a 48-hour silence yesterday to give his first interviews on the failure. He blamed a major “power surge” at 9.30am on Saturday. He said it “collapsed our IT systems”, knocking out the airline’s flight, baggage and customer communication technology.
Mr Cruz said the surge was “so strong that it rendered the back-up system ineffective”, causing an “outage of all our systems” at 170 airports in 70 countries. Power companies denied that there had been any supply problems at the company’s main hub at Heathrow or the airline’s headquarters, north of the airport perimeter. SSE and UK Power Networks, which both supply electricity in the area, said that there had been “no power surge”.
The GMB union blamed a decision last year to outsource IT jobs to India as part of a cost-cutting measure. Mick Rix, the union’s national officer for aviation, said yesterday that he had written a number of letters to Theresa May when she was home secretary complaining of the security risks from the move, but they were ignored. BA denied that the outsourcing had played any part in the IT failure.
Mr Cruz has already been criticised for withdrawing free food and cutting legroom in some aircraft. One passenger tweeted: “Álex Cruz destroyed British Airways and made British Airways a national embarrassment. He has to go.”
Alex Macheras, an aviation consultant, said: “The idea that in 2017 an airline can be brought to its knees for three days because of a simple power issue is extraordinary.”
He told of two women whose flights to Tel Aviv were cancelled on Saturday, with a replacement failing to take off on Sunday. They were understood to have been given seats on a flight tomorrow but only if they paid £800 each to upgrade to premium economy — the only space available.
Confusion also surrounded passengers who had to travel with other airlines, with BA saying that booking “via different carriers would be at your own expense and would have to be claimed back through travel insurance”.
Some passengers faced paying 9p a minute on a landline or 55p from a mobile to call an 0344 compensation hotline used by the airline. BA said that they could use an alternative 0800 freephone number.
Mr Cruz said: “We have been giving letters to customers telling them how to claim under EU compensation rules and we will fully honour our obligations.”
Shares in IAG, the owner of British Airways, lost around £380 million of their value in early trading in London, dropping 3 per cent to 596p.
BA accused of profiting from trapped passengers
British Airways was accused of exploiting passengers’ misery yesterday amid claims that travellers affected by the global IT crash at the weekend were made to pay for expensive upgrades to reach their destinations.
The airline faced criticism over its response to the chaos after it emerged that trapped passengers had to spend up to £800 to gain access to spare seats in premium economy cabins. It was suggested that BA may fail to reimburse in full passengers who had to travel with other airlines, despite some being landed with bills of up to £1,600.
Some of the 75,000 delayed passengers had been required to pay up to 55p a minute to access a BA hotline from their mobile phones to lodge claims for compensation.
The company admitted last night that almost 25,000 of the passengers had still not been able to travel and “a significant number” were without their luggage. BA restored its full flight schedule at Gatwick yesterday and was operating a full long-haul schedule at Heathrow.
However, about a tenth of short-haul flights from Heathrow were cancelled, affecting at least 15 departures for destinations such as Amsterdam, Belfast, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Milan and Stockholm. The airline said that it expected to operate a full schedule of long-haul and short-haul flights today.
Spanish-listed shares of International Airlines Group, which owns BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus, fell 2.5 per cent yesterday, with warnings that the company could face a compensation bill of up to £150 million.
Álex Cruz, BA’s chief executive, who is understood to be paid £830,000 a year, faced calls to resign. The Spanish businessman, who took up the post just over a year ago, broke a 48-hour silence yesterday to give his first interviews on the failure. He blamed a major “power surge” at 9.30am on Saturday. He said it “collapsed our IT systems”, knocking out the airline’s flight, baggage and customer communication technology.
Mr Cruz said the surge was “so strong that it rendered the back-up system ineffective”, causing an “outage of all our systems” at 170 airports in 70 countries. Power companies denied that there had been any supply problems at the company’s main hub at Heathrow or the airline’s headquarters, north of the airport perimeter. SSE and UK Power Networks, which both supply electricity in the area, said that there had been “no power surge”.
The GMB union blamed a decision last year to outsource IT jobs to India as part of a cost-cutting measure. Mick Rix, the union’s national officer for aviation, said yesterday that he had written a number of letters to Theresa May when she was home secretary complaining of the security risks from the move, but they were ignored. BA denied that the outsourcing had played any part in the IT failure.
Mr Cruz has already been criticised for withdrawing free food and cutting legroom in some aircraft. One passenger tweeted: “Álex Cruz destroyed British Airways and made British Airways a national embarrassment. He has to go.”
Alex Macheras, an aviation consultant, said: “The idea that in 2017 an airline can be brought to its knees for three days because of a simple power issue is extraordinary.”
He told of two women whose flights to Tel Aviv were cancelled on Saturday, with a replacement failing to take off on Sunday. They were understood to have been given seats on a flight tomorrow but only if they paid £800 each to upgrade to premium economy — the only space available.
Confusion also surrounded passengers who had to travel with other airlines, with BA saying that booking “via different carriers would be at your own expense and would have to be claimed back through travel insurance”.
Some passengers faced paying 9p a minute on a landline or 55p from a mobile to call an 0344 compensation hotline used by the airline. BA said that they could use an alternative 0800 freephone number.
Mr Cruz said: “We have been giving letters to customers telling them how to claim under EU compensation rules and we will fully honour our obligations.”
Shares in IAG, the owner of British Airways, lost around £380 million of their value in early trading in London, dropping 3 per cent to 596p.
aox
It does apply to airlines. If the airline makes the decision to transfer passengers to another operator then the airline pays, I've certainly known it happen at BA if for example an aircraft goes "tech". Sounds similar to the ferry situation you describe.
If OTOH if the passengers decide that rather than waiting for the original airline come up with a solution that resolves the situation ( e.g. put them on a later flight) they'd rather make alternative arrangements with another operator I suspect legally the situation is slightly different - I do accept there might be good and understable reasons for passengers taking that course of action.
It does apply to airlines. If the airline makes the decision to transfer passengers to another operator then the airline pays, I've certainly known it happen at BA if for example an aircraft goes "tech". Sounds similar to the ferry situation you describe.
If OTOH if the passengers decide that rather than waiting for the original airline come up with a solution that resolves the situation ( e.g. put them on a later flight) they'd rather make alternative arrangements with another operator I suspect legally the situation is slightly different - I do accept there might be good and understable reasons for passengers taking that course of action.
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Confusion also surrounded passengers who had to travel with other airlines, with BA saying that booking “via different carriers would be at your own expense and would have to be claimed back through travel insurance”.
This is interesting, and i will be questioning this.
I was due to fly from Berlin to Heathrow on Saturday, staff had absolutely no communication with London, and all passengers on my flight were held at the airport until the scheduled boarding time to be told the flight was cancelled. The next day exactly the same thing happened, cancellation ten minutes before scheduled take off. I was then offered another seat the next morning that meant I would have to pitch up at Tegel at 6 in the morning. I decide to cut my losses and booked an Easyjet flight. On returning to the UK I checked to discover the third alternative flight I had been offered had left four hours late. I will claim for the Easyjet ticket and expect BA to reject it, but in my view it is an eminently reasonable action for me and anybody else to take. I think the courts would take a similar view. I'm still angry, but realise that in the cold late of day it might be unrealistic to think of pursuing BA through the courts. But they maybe wrong about what they could be liable for.
This is interesting, and i will be questioning this.
I was due to fly from Berlin to Heathrow on Saturday, staff had absolutely no communication with London, and all passengers on my flight were held at the airport until the scheduled boarding time to be told the flight was cancelled. The next day exactly the same thing happened, cancellation ten minutes before scheduled take off. I was then offered another seat the next morning that meant I would have to pitch up at Tegel at 6 in the morning. I decide to cut my losses and booked an Easyjet flight. On returning to the UK I checked to discover the third alternative flight I had been offered had left four hours late. I will claim for the Easyjet ticket and expect BA to reject it, but in my view it is an eminently reasonable action for me and anybody else to take. I think the courts would take a similar view. I'm still angry, but realise that in the cold late of day it might be unrealistic to think of pursuing BA through the courts. But they maybe wrong about what they could be liable for.
Any decent data centre has an array of batteries that kick in as soon as one of the main power supplies( you'll normally have 3) fails and keep the machines running until the whacking great diesel generator (kept at operating temperature) takes over. It'll have fuel for the next 48 hours.
And you'll have your core systems mirrored.
This is industry standard.
And you'll have your core systems mirrored.
This is industry standard.
IIRC they spend £350K on each system, which is quite reasonable for the levels of security provided. This was easily agreed by management, as it was less than 1 days loss of revenue if everything went TU.
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Incompetance seems to be the norm these days in very large businesses.
I have to complete a form for my, extremely large, bank. The document
advising how to do this is missing from their website. Their response:-
there can be many reasons why I cannot find their form, please telephone (International for me) to discuss my problem. I have even told them the supposed location of the missing document.
I gather via the computer press that many IT graduates are considered unemployable these days.
I have to complete a form for my, extremely large, bank. The document
advising how to do this is missing from their website. Their response:-
there can be many reasons why I cannot find their form, please telephone (International for me) to discuss my problem. I have even told them the supposed location of the missing document.
I gather via the computer press that many IT graduates are considered unemployable these days.
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Confusion also surrounded passengers who had to travel with other airlines, with BA saying that booking “via different carriers would be at your own expense and would have to be claimed back through travel insurance”.
This is interesting, and i will be questioning this.
I was due to fly from Berlin to Heathrow on Saturday, staff had absolutely no communication with London, and all passengers on my flight were held at the airport until the scheduled boarding time to be told the flight was cancelled. The next day exactly the same thing happened, cancellation ten minutes before scheduled take off. I was then offered another seat the next morning that meant I would have to pitch up at Tegel at 6 in the morning. I decide to cut my losses and booked an Easyjet flight. On returning to the UK I checked to discover the third alternative flight I had been offered had left four hours late. I will claim for the Easyjet ticket and expect BA to reject it, but in my view it is an eminently reasonable action for me and anybody else to take. I think the courts would take a similar view. I'm still angry, but realise that in the cold late of day it might be unrealistic to think of pursuing BA through the courts. But they maybe wrong about what they could be liable for.
This is interesting, and i will be questioning this.
I was due to fly from Berlin to Heathrow on Saturday, staff had absolutely no communication with London, and all passengers on my flight were held at the airport until the scheduled boarding time to be told the flight was cancelled. The next day exactly the same thing happened, cancellation ten minutes before scheduled take off. I was then offered another seat the next morning that meant I would have to pitch up at Tegel at 6 in the morning. I decide to cut my losses and booked an Easyjet flight. On returning to the UK I checked to discover the third alternative flight I had been offered had left four hours late. I will claim for the Easyjet ticket and expect BA to reject it, but in my view it is an eminently reasonable action for me and anybody else to take. I think the courts would take a similar view. I'm still angry, but realise that in the cold late of day it might be unrealistic to think of pursuing BA through the courts. But they maybe wrong about what they could be liable for.
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If BA have outsourced their IT to Indian companies then it is probably much like the situation at the large mobile telecoms companies in the UK which I have first hand knowledge of.
Management make a decision to outsource their IT function to a third party IT company based in India who provide staff to the UK office on UK work visas granted 'because they can't find the staff in the UK [prepared to work for the pay they are offering]'. It looks great on the bottom line but all the experienced staff are forced out - these are the people who have got everything running smoothly and reliably over years.
These Indian sourced staff are on wages of approx. one third of what IT consultants earn in the UK. They have little experience but are touted as experts yet are mostly fresh out of university in India without a clue how systems work. The telecom company is used as a training ground. The staff are rotated back to India every 6 months to satisfy and government visa restrictions and new graduates are sent it. They work very inefficiently preferring to do things by hand rather than automate them by writing programs to do the work quickly and reliably. That way these individuals become an 'island of information' and they can't be replaced.
Management actually gain security in their job by dumbing down the work force as the mess created by the outsourced company creates much, much management work for them.
So if someone needs to be fired at BA it is likely to be the senior I.T. management swiftly followed by the companies they outsourced to for putting in the cheapest people they could find.
Management make a decision to outsource their IT function to a third party IT company based in India who provide staff to the UK office on UK work visas granted 'because they can't find the staff in the UK [prepared to work for the pay they are offering]'. It looks great on the bottom line but all the experienced staff are forced out - these are the people who have got everything running smoothly and reliably over years.
These Indian sourced staff are on wages of approx. one third of what IT consultants earn in the UK. They have little experience but are touted as experts yet are mostly fresh out of university in India without a clue how systems work. The telecom company is used as a training ground. The staff are rotated back to India every 6 months to satisfy and government visa restrictions and new graduates are sent it. They work very inefficiently preferring to do things by hand rather than automate them by writing programs to do the work quickly and reliably. That way these individuals become an 'island of information' and they can't be replaced.
Management actually gain security in their job by dumbing down the work force as the mess created by the outsourced company creates much, much management work for them.
So if someone needs to be fired at BA it is likely to be the senior I.T. management swiftly followed by the companies they outsourced to for putting in the cheapest people they could find.
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It is a bad state of affairs and it sounds as if they were running around like headless chickens on Saturday. Really sorry for those caught up in this fiasco. But every cloud does have silver linings. Flew back from Singapore (Qatar Airways) on Saturday. Heathrow was amazingly quiet and I was in and out of the terminal in record time. When I mentioned this to a security guard - I was informed of the sorry saga that was going on...
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I've worked with many people from outsource companies. To be fair, some have been excellent but some have been downright bad. There can be little that you can do to get a consistently good service.
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Good companies should permanently employ good people and get good contractors when work load is high.
A good contractor should rightly earn more than a permanent because he wants to fly aeroplanes when he's not working
On the contrary take BA to the small claims court if you are not covered by insurance. I would think that the claim could be uncontested. If everyone affected from UK were to go to their small claims court it would have a salutary (and expensive) effect on BA. Look it up on the internet - it is a simple procedure that doesn't normally require legal assistance. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/la.../small-claims/
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However, the amount of outsourcing that is done these days is huge. It's been a long time since I've recommended IT as a career to anyone.
Seen at The Register, quote of the day imho:
"A modern airline is an IT business, one that just happens to fly aircraft. "
As with most other businesses these days, though it doesn't seem to have percolated through
to those at the top in some places...
"A modern airline is an IT business, one that just happens to fly aircraft. "
As with most other businesses these days, though it doesn't seem to have percolated through
to those at the top in some places...
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Similarly: A modern aircraft is an IT project with engines and wings.
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Same with a lot of other businesses, I used to work in IT in banking and if you don't have the systems working properly you don't have a bank. Senior management took a long time to get their head round that one, by then it was too late because the offshoring had gone too far.
One of the massive problems with offshoring is the concept of face, I had people lie to me about the completion of test cases so that they could try and mark a testing cycle as "complete" rather than request additional time/staff. No doubt the recent situation would have been exacerbated by "face" if offshore/transferee folk were involved, the problem wouldn't likely have been acknowledged until it was far, far too late to mitigate the developing situation.
Thankfully I left IT for something which would be really difficult to offshore.
One of the massive problems with offshoring is the concept of face, I had people lie to me about the completion of test cases so that they could try and mark a testing cycle as "complete" rather than request additional time/staff. No doubt the recent situation would have been exacerbated by "face" if offshore/transferee folk were involved, the problem wouldn't likely have been acknowledged until it was far, far too late to mitigate the developing situation.
Thankfully I left IT for something which would be really difficult to offshore.
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If this is the calibre of senior management at BA then they deserve to fail.