London — Shares in British Airways (BA) owner IAG fell more than 4% in early trading on Tuesday after a huge information technology (IT) failure left 75,000 passengers stranded over the holiday weekend, 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 as much as 4.5% in early deals on Tuesday, the first day of London trading after the holiday weekend.
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