How Dangerous Is British Airways’ Operations Control Center?

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: May 29, 2017

36 comments

Over the weekend British Airways had a massive IT meltdown that led to hundreds upon hundreds of cancelations. This was apparently caused by a “power supply issue.” It’s too soon to know what exactly happened, though British Airways’ union was quick to assign the blame on outsourcing.

I had a busy weekend so didn’t keep up with this too much, though I have one burning question that I really need some insights to, having never worked in a corporate environment. On Saturday British Airways’ CEO Alex Cruz delivered a message to customers from their operations control center, sharing what they’re doing to get the problem fixed, etc.

Here’s the video:

Does anyone have the same question I have? What exactly is so dangerous about British Airways’ operations control center that it requires wearing a high visibility vest?

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Bob May New Member

May 30, 2017, 8:30 pm

Another explanation is that management is always preaching safety, wearing mandated equipment that is required of ramp or operations personal. I have been out on many construction sites with a hard hat with no apparent risk of a head injury, only because it was mandated safety equipment (with steel toe shoes) although I never was a worker.

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Bob Chandler Guest

May 30, 2017, 10:35 am

When an incident command team is activated in an operations command center, the person in charge during contingency operations always wears a vest designating them as the "Incident Commander" during the non-routine operations. This is standard ICT/ICS practice whether at a business, school, hospital or airline. See for example https://www.ready.uic.edu/emergency_operations/emergency_response

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dmodemd Guest

May 30, 2017, 9:18 am

Clearly no proper DR testing. They need a new CIO that knows how to do that.

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Andrew Lock Guest

May 30, 2017, 6:13 am

For a "premium" airline of this size to not have a working backup is beyond ridiculous, its insane. I tried to use BA's app a couple of months ago to checkin. It didnt work, and when i got to the airport, their kiosks also werent working. I had to wait in line for 40 mins to checkin, even though i had no bags. Its unbelievable how far downmarket BA has gone in the last few years. They are in a sad state.

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@mkcol Gold

May 30, 2017, 4:16 am

This vest was the only high-visibility thing about Cruz over the whole weekend fiasco.

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