British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle has told staffers that an IT outage on Monday evening that grounded flights and took down the airline’s website and phone lines is proof that its £750 million in new computer infrastructure is beginning to work.
In an internal memo, Doyle said that a similar outage only a couple of years ago would have resulted in a days-long operational meltdown that would have stranded tens of thousands of passengers.
On Monday evening, however, a backup system “kicked in” just over an hour after the outage was first reported at 5:10 pm, with priority operational systems first brought back online before other systems, like BA’s bug-ridden website, restored at 7:45 pm.
“Our systems data shows the outage itself lasted 95 minutes,” Doyle wrote. “Our backup network kicked in as per our business contingency plans and we were then able to calculate and distribute load sheets and flight plans.”
As the outage unfolded on Monday evening, passengers took to social media to complain about being stuck on British Airways aircraft as pilots struggled to get in touch with their own airline.
Burt Doyle says the outage could have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been for recent upgrades to the airline’s antiquated IT infrastructure.
“We never want to inconvenience you or your customers, and what happened last night was very frustrating,” Doyle wrote. “However, we wanted to reassure you that as a result of our investment in upgrading our systems, we’ve seen a step change in the number of outages occurring and our response to these.”
“What we saw last night was that our investment in our ability to recover our IT systems is making a difference. We’re steadily increasing resilience, and we’re recovering from these issues more quickly.”
Doyle congratulated employees for managing to get every mainline flight away as scheduled without a single cancellation despite the outage.
“We don’t suggest this is ideal – far from it – but every time we experience these issues, our response gets better,” the memo continued. “IT issues affect all companies. What matters is how quickly we respond when they do happen to limit the impact on customers.”
Doyle did not say what caused the outage and did not rule out a potential cyber attack.
Along with moving the airline’s IT infrastructure, the multi-million-pound investment is being used to create a new website and mobile app that should provide customers with more self-service facilities.
British Airways is also investing in new IT merchandising, allowing it to price flights dynamically and add-ons like never before.
In recent weeks, British Airways has been forced to ground a slew of flights due to ongoing issues with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines that power the airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet.
British Airways intends to temporarily abandon Bahrain and Kuwait as a result of ongoing issues, which will mean the closure of a cabin crew base and the termination of veteran crew members.
The airline is also abandoning Dallas Fort Worth starting next summer, slashing the number of flights it operates to Miami and curtailing services to Beijing.
Experts believe the reduction in capacity could result in record-high airfares next year.
