Image source, PA

That's all for the BBC live page coverage of the flight delays and cancellations caused by a British Airways IT system failure.

While I'm off home, many stranded passengers won't be. If you've been affected by today's events, BA recommends filing compensation claims online at www.disruptionclaim.britishairways.com, external

Here's a recap of how the story unfolded:

• 12:00 BST - passengers begin to report long delays at checkin as British Airways suffers what it called "network wide system issues."
• The delays began to have a knock on effect on flights returning to London from abroad.
• 13:13 BST - British Airways cancels all flights scheduled to depart Heathrow and Gatwick after 18:00 BST
• The GMB union blamed the outage on outsourcing IT work to India.
• 16:30 BST - British Airways cancels all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick for the rest of the day.

Best of luck if you're still travelling. But for now, goodbye!

John Strickland, an air industry consultant, says a backlog of planes and passengers could mean disruption to British Airways services could continue into next week.

Mr Strickland said: "Even if they could quickly get the show back on the road, which is a big uncertainty, disruption could run into several days."

Part of the issue is that many aircraft are now out of position as a result of today's flight cancellations, meaning that for some long haul destinations like Tokyo or Los Angeles, it will take a significant amount of time simply to send a plane to pick up stranded passengers.

"There's a massive knock-on effect," Mr Strickland said.

The IT outage occurred at the beginning of half term for many schools in England, and on the first day of a bank holiday weekend, meaning passenger numbers were higher than usual.

"Heathrow ordinarily would be busy but would be exacerbated by the bank holiday, half-term and Ascension Day, which is celebrated in a lot of Europe," Mr Strickland added.

Yolanda Reneewas stuck at New York's JFK airport:

“We were supposed to board British Airways to travel to London for a huge event, Afro Hair & Beauty Live.

“The BA agents did not communicate the computer crash issue to us until after 8:30am.

“They explained the IT crash and said they would give an update at 2pm; even went as far as saying we may not fly out today at all.

“This is so frustrating because I'm booked for the event.This is a mess!

“My first booked event out of the states and I won't be able to attend because now the flight is cancelled.

“I'm beyond frustrated and I'm exhausted. I've been up for over 24 hours!"

Subrata Mukherjee is in Stockholm trying to return to Dallas, Texas:

“I’ve been stuck on a plane in Arlanda airport, Stockholm, for 5 hours.They served us a sandwich after 4 hours.

“They eventually asked us to leave the plane, but they didn’t give any information on whether we’ll be able to fly.

“I had to book a hotel for myself as I was advised to do so and ask for compensation later.

“I’m trying to fly back home to Dallas after a business trip.

“I will have to cancel a family event tomorrow."

The British Airways check-in hall at Gatwick Airport is eerily empty. Elsewhere people are milling around with luggage, gazing hopefully at information boards not knowing if they will be going on holiday.

The emotion came earlier with the first announcement that a major IT system failure meant flights had been cancelled, both here at Gatwick and at Heathrow until 18:00 BST. BA would later announce no flights would be leaving from either airport for the rest of Saturday.

People were in tears as staff started to clear a crowded check-in queue.

Some holidaymakers have been here all day, others have just turned up hoping to catch a flight. BA staff are on hand to help explain the situation as some passengers try to rethink their plans.

Read more...

The BBC's Phillip Norton has spoken to passengers stranded at Fiumicino Airport in Rome after an IT failure led to all British airways flights out of London Heathrow and Gatwick being cancelled on Saturday.

Pelle Wall, a student from the USA, was planning to return home to Salt Lake City, but missed his connecting flight as a result of the delays.

The letters passed to the BBC's Phillip Norton at Rome's Fiumicino airport set out what passengers delayed in today's IT failure can expect in compensation.

Some key points:

• Passengers shouldn't expect to be rebooked at the airport, online or via a call centre as the system failure has affected those operations as well
• Passengers are asked not to remain at the airport
• BA will reimburse costs of up to £200 per day for a hotel room (based on two people sharing)
• Adults can receive £25 per day in food reimbursements
• The airline suggests making reimbursement claims online at www.ba.com/disruptionclaim, external

Image source, Phillip Norton

Image source, Phillip Norton

Image source, Reuters

• British Airways has cancelled Saturday departures from London's two biggest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick
• The move comes after an IT failure caused extensive delays and cancellations around the airline's global network
• There's no explanation yet for what caused the IT outage
• The systems affected include call centres and the ba.com website hampering efforts to rebook affected passengers

British Airways 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, Saturday, May 27.

"The system outage has also affected our call centres and our website but we will update customers as soon as we are able to.

"We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers during this busy holiday period."

Richard Westcott
Transport correspondent

As ever, it’s a lack of information that’s really making BA passengers angry.

We’re still awaiting an explanation from the airline and a timescale for how long the problems might last.

The GMB union says this meltdown could have been avoided if BA hadn’t made hundreds of IT staff redundant and outsourced their jobs to India at the end of last year.

Yes, the union has a big axe to grind, but still, people will want to know if the airline made its IT systems more vulnerable by scaling back computer support to save money.

Although BA has just flatly denied that to me.

IT problems ripple through an airline.

Here’s an example from today: a passenger told me that airport staff scanned his boarding pass for a flight to Sweden. The first scan said he was going to Chicago. They did it again and it said he was off to Oslo in Norway - and things like that have been happening all day.

If planes can’t take off, they can’t leave gaps at the gate for others to land.

If flights are delayed by more than around 5 hours, the airline must swap crews because shift lengths are strictly limited for safety reasons.

Telling customers to stay away is a drastic measure, but it’s the only chance BA has of clearing the backlog of flights.

BA says all flights scheduled to depart Heathrow and Gatwick airports on May 27th are now cancelled.

A union has blamed the computer outage which has grounded British AIrways flights on the outsourcing of IT jobs to India in 2016.

GMB said the outage could have been avoided if the airline had not outsourced hundreds of jobs to Asia.

National officer for aviation Mick Rix said:

Image source, Sig Watkins/@fitmanage

British Airways' flight cancellations from Gatwick come a day after a system error meant flights were leaving without passengers' luggage.

Passengers reported long queues at check-in desks on Friday. Departing flights from the north and south terminals were affected.

The airport said the problem had now been resolved and it was working with airlines to get luggage to passengers "as soon as possible".

The system for handling luggage from arriving flights has not been affected.