BA flights disrupted for third day after IT crash

London : Passengers faced a third day of disruption at Heathrow Monday as British Airways cancelled short-haul flights after a global computer crash that unions blamed on the outsourcing of IT services to India.

The embattled airline said it was cancelling 13 short-haul flights from Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest, but was aiming to operate a full long-haul schedule from the hub and was operating a full service from Gatwick Airport.

Thousands of passengers were left stranded over a busy holiday weekend in Britain after BA scrapped hundreds of flights worldwide. Experts warned the knock-on effects could continue for several days.

The airline urged passengers to check their flight status online before travelling to the airport in a bid to avoid scenes seen over the weekend when people camped out at Heathrow.

The GMB trade union said the disruption "could have all been avoided" if BA had not cut hundreds of IT jobs in Britain and transferred the work to India.

But the airline denied the claim and said it was making "good progress" on restoring normal service.

"As our IT systems move closer to full operational capacity, we will again run a full schedule at Gatwick on Monday and intend to operate a full long-haul schedule and a high proportion of our short-haul programme at Heathrow," a spokeswoman said.

"We apologise again to customers for the frustration and inconvenience they are experiencing and thank them for their continued patience," she said.