Chaos at Barajas airport as British Airways system goes down

Passengers worldwide have been affected, and all flights have been cancelled until 18.00 tonight (mainland Spain time) in every country.

British Airways (BA), which is part of the Anglo-Spanish company IAG – encompassing Irish carrier Aer Lingus and Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling – says a 'major IT fault' has stopped all flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

For Spain, this means long-haul flights in particular are affected, since BA is a major carrier from Barcelona and Madrid airports to destinations in, among other countries, India and Australia.

Passengers have complained on social networks that they have not been able to make bookings or check in online via the BA mobile phone App, whilst others say the queues in Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas terminal are stretching back along the corridor.

Here, flights directly to, or via, London scheduled for 10.55 and 12.20 were delayed and will not take off until at least 18.20.

One passenger who was heading to Heathrow from Madrid on flight BA457 – the first of the morning, due to leave at 10.55 – for a connecting flight to the USA said passengers were still stuck on the plane at 13.30 since the company thought it would be able to solve the problem relatively quickly.

The traveller said many passengers, who needed to be in London today during business hours, decided to abandon their trip and got off the plane.

And passengers on the 12.20 from Madrid to Heathrow are believed to still be on the plane at the time of publication, 15.15 on Saturday, May 27.

Iberia and Vueling flights are continuing to operate normally, although those arriving in Spain from Heathrow 'may be affected' by what IAG calls 'a system outage'.

Photograph: Wikimedia Commons/Mark Harkin