Shares in BA-owner IAG fall 4% after weekend chaos

LONDON

Shares in British Airways owner IAG fell more than 4 per cent on Tuesday after a huge IT failure grounded hundreds of flights over the holiday weekend, leaving 75,000 passengers stranded and dealing a major blow to its reputation.

BA was forced to cancel its schedule from London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, and Gatwick on Saturday after it said a power surge knocked out its computer systems, disrupting its global flight operations, call centres and website.

It struggled to recover on Sunday and Monday, but said it would be operating a full flight schedule at Heathrow and Gatwick on Tuesday.

Shares in IAG, which also owns carriers Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, fell more than 4 per cent in early deals on Tuesday, the first day of London trading after the holiday weekend.

They were down 4.3 per cent at 588 pence at 0708 GMT, wiping half a billion pounds off its market value.