Exclusive The Register can exclusively reveal that the "IT issue" behind the ongoing chaos at British Airways was due to problems with how its systems interact with the Vodafone platform.

Although the problem, which started yesterday, has since been fixed, the baggage system mixup was so severe that passengers were placed on flights without their checked-in luggage and many continue to face long delays before they can get their hands on their bags.

According to internal communications seen by The Register, the airline was forced to switch to a manual baggage check process while engineers worked to resolve the issue.

The memo states that due to an "ongoing technical issue relating to our baggage allocation system and how it interacts" with the Vodafone platform meant "a number of customer bags will not be traveling from LHR this evening."

A spokesperson for British Airways told The Register: "We've apologised to those customers who were unable to travel with their luggage due to a temporary technical fault that was outside of our control. This issue has been resolved and we've brought in additional colleagues to support our teams in getting bags back to our customers as quickly as possible."

As of this morning, Heathrow's X account said: "Earlier British Airways experienced a technical issue with their Allocation System, this has now been resolved. We advise passengers to check with BA before travelling to the airport as BA passengers in Terminal 5 may still be impacted. No other airline is impacted."

The Register understands that British Airways' IT team and their Vodafone counterparts were working on the issue, which was described as "dynamic."

We contacted Vodafone to get its take on last night's events, but the company has yet to respond.

A Register reader caught up in the chaos at Heathrow Terminal 5 told us that baggage was delayed by up to three hours for all arrivals, and said at "about 6.30 a Tannoy announcement said that anything that was not already on the conveyor would not be unloaded tonight."

They added: "Many passengers who were visiting were frustrated that the lost baggage system is not designed to support having multiple possible destinations depending on itinerary and no timing on when baggage might arrive."

The issues were blamed on that old IT chestnut, the "system problem."

While it is amusing to speculate that the issues might have been related to staff taking a keen interest in certain countries' national football teams kicking a ball around in Germany, the problem is the latest in a long line of IT outages suffered by BA, the company that once called itself "the world's favourite airline."

In 2022, flights were grounded due to a glitch in the flight planning app. Load sheet problems kept aircraft at the terminal in 2018, and BA's online presence regularly falls over.

Earlier this year, the airline announced a £7 billion ($8.8 billion) transformation plan, including a new website and mobile app. British Airways also promised that "multimillion-pound leading-edge technology systems, AI and machine learning will help flights depart on time, along with 350 new jobs at Heathrow and the first ever bespoke Microsoft Connected Teams ground-to-air customer care solution."

Assuming, of course, it can connect luggage with its destination. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/06/26/british_airways_t5_luggage/