Crisis-hit British Airways has defended its outsourcing policy amidst claims by a labour union that the massive failure at the IT systems of the airline that has crippled its services and stranded thousands of passengers globally, was caused by outsourcing to India.
Commenting on the statements from the GMB trade union suggesting there was a link between the current problems and the IT redundancies and the outsourcing of some work to an Indian IT firm last year, the airline told The Registrar: "We would never compromise the integrity and security of our IT systems.
"IT services are now provided globally by a range of suppliers and this is very common practice across all industries" and ... "the UK Government," the unnamed official told the London-based online publication.
British Airways CEO Alex Cruz has said the root cause of the London flight-grounding IT systems is "a power supply issue" and that the airline has "no evidence of any cyberattack".
The British Airways has a very large infrastructure; it has over 500 data cabinets spread across six halls in two different sites near its Heathrow Waterside Headquarters, the report said.
The airline has cancelled all flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick amid a "global IT system failure", resulting in the cancellation of flights, stranding thousands of passengers at airports.
The airlines IT teams are working "tirelessly" to fix the problems, said Cruz.
