IT failure results in severe delays for British Airways passengers

Travellers at both Heathrow and Gatwick airports endured long lines and wait times longer than some of the flights in what was described as "total chaos," as passengers had to be checked-in manually.

In May, BA suffered a catastrophic, three-day long IT failure which led to more than 670 flights being cancelled over the Spring bank holiday weekend, affecting over 75,000 passengers, and opening it up to a potential compensation bill in excess of £100m.

A spokesman for BA said: "We are sorry for the temporary check-in problems which caused some delays for our customers first thing this morning.

"This issue is now resolved and our staff are working flat out to help customers get away on their holidays."

Between 0800 and 1100, 35 of the 80 British Airways flights scheduled to depart from Heathrow were "delayed" according to its own flight status page.

The delays came amidst travellers to some of the more popular EU holiday spots being warned of lines in excess of four hours in places like Madrid, Lisbon, Paris Orly, Milan and Brussels, with Airlines UK, an industry body representing UK-registered carriers, stating that some flights had seen some flight delays increase as much as 300% over the last year.

After recent terror attacks in London and Brussels, the EU introduced several new rules requiring Schengen area countries to undertake a more thorough investigation of passengers entering and leaving the EU.

As staff spends more time on these counter-terror tactics, wait times for travellers increases.

Tim Aldersdale, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: "Clearly, the situation has changed markedly as we enter peak holiday season and it is now up to the UK government to work with industry to use whatever influence it can within the EU to persuade Schengen member states to resource their border operations properly."

As of BST 1535, shares of BA parent company, IAG remained steady at 597.00p.