Updated May 28, 2017 00:49:04

Photo: Passengers have reported being stuck on the tarmac on British Airways flights across the UK. (Reuters: Suzanne Plunkett)

British Airways has cancelled all its flights from London's two main airports after a global computer system outage caused massive delays and left planes stuck on runways.

The airline said terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick had become extremely congested because of the IT failure and all BA flights scheduled before 6:00pm (local time) on Saturday had been cancelled.

"Please do not come to the airports. We have experienced a major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide," the airline said in a statement.

"We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."

The airline said there was no evidence that the breakdown had been caused by a cyber attack.

The problems, which passengers said had affected flights across Britain, came on a particularly busy weekend, with a public holiday on Monday and many children starting their school half-term breaks.

BA is the latest airline to be hit by computer problems.

Last month Germany's Lufthansa and Air France suffered a global system outage which prevented them from boarding passengers.

Passengers trying to catch planes in Britain on Saturday reported long delays at check-in desks and flights being held on runways.

"Still on the tarmac at Leeds. #britishairways reckon Heathrow is so backed up we can't set off. No way we'll make our Vegas flight," one passenger David Raine wrote on Twitter.

Another, journalist Martyn Kent, wrote: "Sat on plane at Heathrow for hour and a half now. @British_Airways Captain describes IT problem as 'catastrophic'."

Passenger Phillip Norton tweeted video of an announcement from a pilot to passengers at Rome's Fiumicino airport, saying the problem affects the system that regulates which passengers and baggage go on which aircraft.

He said passengers on planes that had landed at Heathrow were unable to get off because there was nowhere to park.

London's Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, said it was working with BA.

Passenger Roshni Burt, who was flying from Heathrow to Bahrain with her young son, said there was no news about when her flight would depart.

"When we left the check-in area there were angry people, people getting frustrated that their flights were coming up or near to departure, people getting turned away … with BA staff basically saying 'if you've not checked in online, you've missed your flight'," she told Sky News.

Reuters

Topics: air-transport, travel-and-tourism, information-technology, united-kingdom

First posted May 27, 2017 23:05:54