This setback comes as UK travelers get ready for one of the year's busiest travel periods due to school half-term holidays and an extended weekend.
The airline stated, "While the vast majority of our flights continue to operate today, we have canceled some of our short-haul flights from Heathrow due to the knock-on effect of a technical issue that we experienced yesterday."
While British Airways has not disclosed the exact number of flights canceled, FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, reports that the airline canceled 128 flights on Thursday and an additional 35 on Friday. Heathrow Airport, where British Airways is headquartered, stated via Twitter that technical difficulties are affecting some departing and arriving flights.
The disruptions coincide with one of Europe's biggest travel weekends, as many countries will observe a public holiday on Monday. Compared to the previous year, when the post-pandemic rebound overwhelmed the industry leading to thousands of canceled flights, lost luggage, and lengthy airport lines from Heathrow to Amsterdam to Frankfurt, airlines and airports assert they are better equipped to manage the significant uptick in bookings.
Passengers have taken to social media to express their frustration about lengthy wait times to communicate with customer service representatives and restrictions that only allow them to book an alternative flight 36 hours after their original departure time.
The last instance of a technical snag for British Airways was in December when a crash in the company's flight-planning software caused aircraft to be grounded for several hours.
