British Airways Spanish owners to blame for IT meltdown

Beleaguered British Airways does not have a top-tier director in the UK with responsibility for overseeing its troubled IT systems.

The news follows days of misery for tens of thousands of passengers stranded this week by systems failures at Heathrow, Gatwick and London City Airport.

Below the BA board is a management committee, but it does not have a member devoted to IT either. Instead, vital computer systems are controlled by BA’s Anglo-Spanish parent firm International Airlines Group (IAG), which has head offices in Madrid and at Heathrow.

IAG also owns the Spanish carrier Iberia, Ireland’s Aer Lingus and budget airlines Vueling and Level. Its executives are responsible for complex systems at several airlines.

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BA alone has at least two hundred systems across its network.

After IAG took over BA in 2011, staff working on its computer systems were transferred to a new operation, IAG Global Business Services. IAG controls spending and makes decisions on investment in technology.

Until recently, IT systems were the responsibility of former BA finance chief Steve Gunning. But he moved to parent company IAG and his replacement at British Airways has not taken on any IT role.

BA’s lack of IT leadership appears to have had catastrophic consequences.

On Wednesday, the plans of up to 70,000 customers were thrown into chaos when its online check-in system crashed. More than 400 flights were cancelled or delayed, leaving BA potentially facing a £16million compensation bill.

Passengers were forced to go to check-in desks where staff tried to process the backlog manually. It took BA ten hours to sort the problem out, but by then passengers were stranded in Japan, Paris and the US.

City analysts say BA’s issues are mainly due to ageing IT. But new, bespoke software has crashed, too.

The firm has also outsourced some IT to the Indian firm Tata while cutting its own staff.

BA declined to comment. However, IAG said: ‘IAG Global Business Services, which includes IT across the group, reports to Steve Gunning.’

Source – https://www.dailymail.co.uk