Airport hit by IT glitch

Dan Ilet silicon.com

Published: 14 Nov 2005 16:40 GMT

Passengers were delayed at Gatwick airport over the weekend after an IT failure caused the check-in system to stop working.

Computer teams worked over the weekend to correct the fault, which led to one plane being held up as long as 24 hours.

A spokesman for BAA, which owns Gatwick Airport, said the failure brought down every system except those of British Airways: "As soon as it went down we implemented a manual system. We brought in additional staff to keep passengers informed. Some passengers were at the airport longer than normal so we provided additional catering. Most were delayed by two hours but some were more. One flight was delayed by 24 hours but that was also because they didn't have crew availability."

BAA has yet to disclose exactly what the systems failure was.

British Airways said the failure "had absolutely no effect whatsoever" on their systems but would not comment on why it happened.

BAA said as of Sunday all systems were back online and running properly.