British Airways apologises for flight delays as passengers share updates on Twitter

British Airways has apologised to passengers in the US who experienced flight delays after planes were grounded as a result of a technical issue.

The airline said its third-party long-haul flight planning systems were the source of the delays which affected flights in the US (New York, Denver and Miami), and the Caribbean (Antigua) that were grounded for several hours before eventually taking off.

This problem was not a safety issue, it did not affect short-haul flights nor did this affect flights that had already departed.

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In an earlier statement, as per BBC, Britsh Airways said: "Our flights due to depart the USA tonight are currently delayed due to a technical issue with our third-party flight planning supplier, which we are urgently investigating.

“We’re sorry for any disruption this will cause to our customers’ plans, our aim is for these flights to depart as quickly as possible.”

Amid the long delays, passengers took to Twitter to provide updates on the situation, where they complained about the airline's bad communication with customers.

One of the passengers was actor and model Liz Hurley, who detailed how she was "Stranded at Antigua airport with no food or water, taxis or hotels offered yet. Plane delayed 20 hours,"

In a follow-up tweet, the 57-year-old added: “Still stranded – no food, water or hotel. Pretty dodgy service."

"Still nothing from @british_airways. Extraordinary service! Finally, managed to find a taxi ourselves to escape airport after more than 12 hours with no food or water #avoidflying," she wrote in a third update.

Liz Hurely took to Twitter to detail how she was stranded in Antigua aiport for 20 hours due to BA flight delays Twitter/Elizabeth Hurley

Passengers took to social media to post about the delays they were experiencing on their BA flights Twitter/colindickey

Passengers took to social media to post about the delays they were experiencing on their BA flights Twitter/buttonsprescho

Passengers took to social media to post about the delays they were experiencing on their BA flights Twitter/TravisCommGuy

Passengers took to social media to post about the delays they were experiencing on their BA flightsTwitter/dankular3

British Airways have since confirmed that the technical issue has been fixed.

In a statement on Tuesday morning, the airline said: "Our teams have now resolved a temporary issue that affected some of our long-haul flight planning systems overnight, which resulted in delays to our schedule. We’re sorry for the disruption caused to our customers’ travel plans."

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