British Airways Leverages AI to Dramatically Improve Flight Punctuality and Reduce Delays

British Airways boss says 'game-changing' AI has helped cut delays

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. 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. 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.

British Airways claims to have found fix for flight delays

"The tech [that] colleagues have at their fingertips has been a real game changer, giving them the confidence to make informed decisions based on a rapid assessment of vast amounts of data." Some 86pc of flights departed Heathrow on time in the first quarter of 2025, the best ever figure. That ranked BA ahead of long-haul rivals Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, as well as discount operators Ryanair and EasyJet, according to figures from flight-data provider Cirium. New apps for pilots, cabin crew and aircraft dispatch teams are also set to be introduced to speed-up aircraft departures. BA's bet on AI has seen it hire 100 data scientists and embrace a range of digital tools and apps. The most transformational has been one that looks at passengers' connecting flights and allocates their plane a gate in the best possible location to minimise delays transferring. That might mean European services delayed by bad weather are docked as close as possible to the next flight to New York, which connecting passengers might otherwise miss. The step has slashed disruption to onward journeys, saving more than 2,600 hours of delays for passengers. BA has also switched to a real-time weather programme that reroutes aircraft to avoid areas of disturbance in advance, saving 4,000 hours. Other tools crunch live operational data to highlight routes that could face delays or calculate the most effective response to disruption from external events, such as air traffic control failures and the recent power outage at Heathrow. BA is continuing to work through a £7bn programme that aims to transform customer service and boost punctuality through an overhaul of its IT systems, its website and booking app. While around 600 individual projects were originally envisaged, more than 800 have now been rolled out following input from staff.