British Airways has issued a full statement after an IT failure caused mass cancellations of flights out of London airports:

“We have experienced a major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide.

“The terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick have become extremely congested and we have cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick before 6pm UK time today, so please do not come to the airports.

“We will provide more information on ba.com, Twitter and through airport communication channels as soon as we can for flights due to depart after that time.

“We will be updating the situation via the media regularly throughout the day.

“We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.”