British Airways flights within South Africa do not appear to have been affected by a major IT glitch that grounded flights from Heathrow and Gatwick in the UK on Saturday.
Erik Venter‚ chief executive officer of Comair‚ which operates British Airways in South Africa‚ told TimesLIVE on Sunday that he was unaware of any local disruptions as a result of the IT failure.
“I haven’t heard of any problems in South Africa. I don’t know if there is any impact on international flights… even the arrival at 9am from Heaththrow to South Africa was on time‚” he said.
Airports Company South Africa referred questions to British Airways and would not respond to queries on whether passengers travelling from South Africa to Heathrow were affected.
The Guardian reported that the IT failure had caused severe disruptions to British Airways global operations.
The computer crash affected BA’s booking system‚ baggage handling‚ mobile phone apps and check-in desks‚ leaving passengers facing long queues and confusion in airports or delays while planes were held on runways.
According to The Guardian more than 1 000 flights were affected. Travellers were expected to be inconvenienced for several more days.