British Airways using AI to Cut Flight Delays

British Airways says its Heathrow flights are now more than twice as punctual as in 2023, thanks to artificial intelligence.

The airline said two-thirds of departures from its west London hub left ahead of schedule in April.

That is more than double the figure recorded in the same month last year and nearly 20% better than in April 2024.

British Airways credited the improvement to its use of “artificial intelligence, forecasting, optimisation and machine learning”.

The airline said it has spent £100 million on improving operational resilience.

That investment has funded new digital tools and apps.

One system assigns arriving aircraft to stands based on passengers’ onward connections. That live analysis is estimated to have saved 160,000 minutes of delays.

Another system reroutes planes to avoid bad weather. British Airways said that it has prevented around 243,000 minutes of delays.

The airline said 86% of its Heathrow flights departed on time in the first three months of 2025. That was the best result on record and up from 46% in 2008.

British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle told an innovation summit in Pittsburgh:

“Improving operational performance is a key part of our investment programme because we know the impact delays and disruption can have on our customers.

“Whilst disruption to our flights is often outside of our control, our focus has been on improving the factors we can directly influence and putting in place the best possible solutions for our customers when it does happen.

“That’s why we’ve invested £100 million in our own operational resilience, putting funding into technology and tools, and devising a better way of working on the ground at Heathrow as well as creating an additional 600 operational roles into the airport.

“The tech (our) colleagues have at their fingertips has been a real gamechanger for performance, giving them the confidence to make informed decisions for our customers based on a rapid assessment of vast amounts of data.

“It’s exciting that our industry is able to harness this capability, which will develop even further in the months and years to come.”

British Airways continues to work through a £7 billion 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.

British Airways said it plans to roll out more AI-powered tools in the coming months.