British Airways passengers face delays and cancellations after an IT outage meant flights were unable to take off.

       Passengers said on X that they were held on planes unable to depart and others said they faced problems with the airline’s website.

       British Airways said on Monday evening that flights were operating but subject to delays as staff grappled with the IT problem.

       A spokesman said: “Our flights are currently operating, but are experiencing delays as our teams work to resolve a technical issue affecting some of our systems.”

       The company didn’t specify what systems were affected or comment on the cause.

       A Heathrow spokesman said: “We are aware of a technical issue that British Airways are investigating and we will be working with them to provide updates to passengers as soon as they are available. Heathrow’s systems are operating as normal.”

       Flight cancellations are expected because of limits on how long crews can work while problems are expected to continue into Tuesday as planes remain out of place.

       One passenger posted: “BA 535 stuck on tarmac at Naples. Pilot hasn’t received load sheet and unable to communicate with Heathrow as internal phones are down.”

       A second passenger wrote that the app was not loading and showed a message that the page was in “high demand” while another posted: “Pilot said system is now fixed but there is a going to be big delay. He has suggested we will be sat on the plane for one hour before departure.”

       Meanwhile a BA employee tasked with responding to passengers through the airline’s X account also confirmed its website was down.

       They wrote: “Our website is down. We are doing all we can to return online as soon as possible.

       “Hopefully not too long before the captain has his updates. Thanks for your understanding. Have a good journey.”

       British Airways has a long history of IT outages.

       The installation of a new departure control and customer management system known as FLY in 2015 led to a succession of glitches, while the company’s global network was shut down by a power outage in 2017 after an employee flipped the wrong switch.

       An IT failure in May 2023 caused more than 200 flights to be grounded, affecting over 30,000 passengers across a bank holiday weekend.

       The company was also a victim of a global outage in July that led to thousands of flight cancellations around the world.

       The failure was triggered by a software update at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike that affected Microsoft-operated systems at dozens of airlines and airports and spanned 72 hours.