British Airways suffers IT outage: What's that got to do with India?

It was a tough weekend for British Airways, and some made India a party in the chaos. The largest airline in the United Kingdom was forced to cancel flights from Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Saturday following a worldwide IT outage. The effects continued to show for the third day, as the largest airline service resumed flights earlier today.
Meanwhile, an employee union blamed British Airways outsourcing its IT jobs to Indian firm for the crisis. The airline has not pulled up the IT firm for discrepancies yet.

What happened at British airports?

British Airways cancelled outgoing flights from Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Saturday after its IT systems failed across the world. Check-ins and baggage reclaim were hard hit in addition to the flight programmes.
The passengers were stranded at the two London airports, and some lost their luggage in the commotion. BA flights to and from three Indian metro cities were also cancelled after the computer system broke down.
British Airways customers flying from Heathrow had to face delays yet again on Sunday, whereas British Airways ran its normal schedule at the Gatwick. Disruptions continued on Monday too, but flights resumed after mid-day as per Indian Standard Time.

Who is dragging India's name?

India came into the scene after aviation workers' union GMB blamed British Airways of driving itself into this quagmire by outsourcing IT jobs to an Indian firm. As seen on the union's website, its national officer Mick Rix said, "This could have all been avoided. BA in 2016 made hundreds of dedicated and loyal IT staff redundant and outsourced the work to India."

What does British Airways have to say?

The British airline cited a power supply issue as the reason behind the IT system malfunction, and not the professionals working on it. "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," Alex Cruz, Chief Executive of the airlines was quoted by The Registrar.

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