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The boss of British Airways has said “game-changing” AI technology has helped significantly cut the number of cancellations and delays at the airline, which is fighting to restore its reputation following years of operational problems.
In the first quarter, 86 per cent of BA’s flights from Heathrow departed on time, according to data from the airline, which it said was its best performance on record.
A separate Financial Times analysis of data from the UK’s aviation regulator showed that BA flights from the airport have been less likely to face severe disruption than rivals over the 12 months ending February, although the number of delays of more than an hour are still above pre-pandemic levels.
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BA had been grappling with a rising number of disrupted flights since the end of the pandemic, particularly from its London hub at Heathrow airport.
But Sean Doyle, British Airways chief executive, said the airline’s performance had improved after it invested £100mn in its “operational resilience”, including in new AI technologies and 600 extra staff at Heathrow.
“Whilst disruption to our flights is often outside of our control, our focus has been on improving the factors we can directly influence . . . the tech colleagues have at their fingertips has been a real game-changer for performance,” he said.
The investments have included upgrading its notoriously unreliable IT systems, which suffered a string of high-profile failures in 2017, 2019 and 2022.
BA said its new AI software included a tool which calculates how to respond to disruption so that it affects the lowest number of customers possible, such as whether to delay a flight, or cancel it and rebook people on to the next plane.
Other tools include a programme which proactively reroutes planes to avoid areas of poor weather, and another which crunches the onward travel plans of passengers to send aircraft to the most convenient stand at Heathrow airport.
The carrier has long suffered from creaking technology, operational complexity and exposure to London’s Heathrow airport, which operates at close to full capacity.
By last summer, the airline’s flight delays and cancellations to and from Heathrow had more than doubled since the Covid pandemic.
“They had to turn it around. We know all airlines coming out of Covid had a hard time, but BA was really struggling,” said John Strickland, an aviation consultant.
Still, Strickland said the looming peak summer season will be a bigger challenge for BA than the first quarter, which is typically airlines’ quietest.
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The airline has partly blamed external factors for its problems, including air traffic control delays, and delays receiving engines and other spare parts from Rolls-Royce for its Boeing 787 long-haul aircraft.
British Airways owner IAG last year unveiled a £7bn investment in the airline, aimed at both improving its operational reliability and bringing the brand more upmarket.
Luis Gallego, chief executive of IAG, told the FT in August that BA “can do . . . much better,” he added, and the investment was seen by many analysts as an admission that BA had been seriously underperforming.