What caused BA’s IT fiasco?

International Airlines Group has cut costs to the bone – jeopardising its operations and customer relations. Ben Judge reports.

Walsh_hero

"Slasher" Walsh: a damaging level of penny-pinching
(Image credit: JA3)

The British Airways IT systems meltdown over the spring bank holiday led to the cancellation of more than a thousand flights, the stranding of 75,000 passengers, and an estimated £100m compensation bill. It was arguably "the airline's worst self-inflicted crisis since it was privatised 30 years ago", reckons Anthony Hilton in the Evening Standard. Yet investors seem to have shrugged it off the share price of its parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), fell just 3% "on what was a poor day for airline stocks anyway".

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Ben Judge

Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin. 

As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.