The contractors who manage the data centre where a power shutdown caused chaos for British Airways passengers over the bank holiday weekend have denied that any human error has been identified.
Reports claimed a maintenance worker had inadvertently switched off the power supply. But CBRE, which manages the facilities at BA’s ageing Boadicea House data centre near Heathrow, said claims that the cause had been determined were “not founded in fact”.
CBRE, a global firm whose services include maintaining mechanical and electrical services for data centres, said: “We are the manager of the facility for our client BA and fully support its investigation. No determination has been made yet regarding the cause of this incident. Any speculation to the contrary is not founded in fact.”
British Airways said its investigation was ongoing and the cause had not been determined.
In an internal email to staff, Bill Francis, the head of IT for BA’s parent company, IAG, said an uninterruptible power supply to a core data centre at Heathrow was over-ridden.
He said: “This resulted in the total immediate loss of power to the facility, bypassing the backup generators and batteries … After a few minutes of this shutdown of power, it was turned back on in an unplanned and uncontrolled fashion, which created physical damage to the system, and significantly exacerbated the problem.”
Francis told investors in 2015 that he would find savings of about €90m (£78m) per year from outsourcing IT operations, which followed cuts in pay and conditions for BA’s cabin crew.
The power shutdown knocked out the airline’s computer systems, but experts have questioned why any company would not have a functioning uninterruptible power supply and failsafe backups.
BA had to cancel all flights from London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports last Saturday, leaving 75,000 passengers stranded. It blamed a power surge that knocked out its computer system, disrupting flight operations, call centres and its website.
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways’ parent company IAG, on Thursday praised BA bosses for “doing everything possible” after the IT meltdown.
Walsh’s comments came amid reports that the BA board is demanding an external inquiry into the fiasco, which is expected to land the airline with a £100m-plus compensation bill.
He said the investigation would take time but insisted that BA’s management, led by the chief executive, Alex Cruz, “did everything they could in the circumstances”.
The airline has been criticised for not promising full compensation to all those affected, but Walsh pledged: “Our focus will be on making sure that any of our customers who experienced disruption are satisfied with how we handled things. Clearly we will do everything we can to make up for the disruption that they suffered.”
Customers have been further angered by BA’s online claim forms, which instruct them to first seek compensation via their travel insurance – leaving many liable to pay an excess. The Association of British Insurers has complained to the airline that it is giving misleading information and that BA should be the first point of call.
What level of compensation the airline intends to provide will be of intense interest to customers still waiting for their bags to be returned – even though they were unable to fly.
