British Airways has apologized to passengers after an unspecified technical issue impacted its check-in computer systems.
Early reports suggested that the problem might be a global one, but the airline said that that was not the case. A spokesperson told the UK's Press Association that passengers are being checked in at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, but that the process was "a bit slower than usual". When asked where the IT problems were specifically, she said: "It is patchy."
According to Bloomberg, some passengers are being issued with hand-written boarding passes. Some also said that they had been forced to wait for several hours to board their flights, and many flights departed far later than scheduled.
British Airways said on social media: "We apologise to our customers for the delay and we appreciate their patience as our IT teams work to resolve this issue."
Today's technical fault follows another glitch involving British Airways' check-in system in July. It's not yet clear if today's issue has been fully resolved, but it appears that queues are now easing up at the airports affected. The airline said that check-in may still "take longer than usual", but it is advising passengers to arrive on time for their flights, and suggests that they check themselves in online if possible.
Source: PA