TheCable

Computer problems have forced British Airways to cancel all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick.

The airline operates morning flights to Lagos and evening flights to Abuja every day from Heathrow, London.

The airline said “a major IT system failure is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide” and apologised for the “global system outage”.

It said there was no evidence of a cyber attack, but did not comment on the cause of the disruption.

According to UK Guardian, passengers on one flight were told by the pilot that the IT problems were “catastrophic”.

“Please do not come to the airports,” BA said in a statement.

It explained that its terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick had become “extremely congested” due to the problem.

The worst disruption affected Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport, BA’s main hub.

However, passengers returning from destinations in the US and Europe also suffered lengthy delays, with some sitting in planes on the runway for several hours.

It is believed hundreds of flights at the two airports have been affected, and more around the world have suffered major delays.

“Following the major IT system failure experienced earlier today, with regret we have had to cancel all flights leaving from Heathrow and Gatwick for the rest of Saturday,” a spokeswoman said.

“We are working hard to get our customers who were due to fly today on to the next available flights over the course of the rest of the weekend. Those unable to fly will be offered a full refund. The system outage has also affected our call centres and our website but we will update customers as soon as we are able to.”

All passengers affected by the failure – which coincides with the first weekend of the half-term holiday for many in the UK – will be offered the option of rescheduling or a refund.

Other airlines flying in and out of Heathrow and Gatwick are unaffected.

Travellers have been told to check ba.com and its Twitter account for updates about the situation.