JUST IN: British Airways flight chaos at Heathrow enters third day

NEWS UPDATE

Following the computer systems crash across the world after they are ‘hacked’ British Airways passengers are facing a third day of disruption at Heathrow as the airline deals with the impact of a worldwide computer system crash.

British Airways says it aims to operate a full long-haul schedule and a "high proportion" of short-haul services after the outage caused by a power failure.

It says passengers should check the status of flights before travelling.

Cancellations and delays affected thousands of passengers at both Heathrow and Gatwick on Saturday.

All flights operated from Gatwick on Sunday but more than a third of services from Heathrow - mostly to short-haul destinations - were cancelled.

In a statement, BA said its IT systems were moving "closer to full operational capacity".

"We continue to make good progress in rebuilding our operation, following Saturday's major IT systems failure which severely affected our operations worldwide," it added.

"At Heathrow, we have operated virtually all our scheduled long-haul flights, though the knock-on effects of Saturday's disruption resulted in a reduced short-haul programme.

"We apologise again to customers for the frustration and inconvenience they are experiencing and thank them for their continued patience."

British Airways is liable to reimburse thousands of passengers for refreshments and hotel expenses, and travel industry commentators have suggested the cost to the company - part of Europe's largest airline group IAG - could run in to tens of millions of pounds.

Customers displaced by flight cancellations can claim up to £200 a day for a room (based on two people sharing), £50 for transport between the hotel and airport, and £25 a day per adult for meals and refreshments.

On Saturday night, travellers spent the night sleeping on terminal floors at Heathrow on yoga mats provided by British Airways.

The disruption continued into Sunday, with queues building up as passengers tried to rebook flights. Conference rooms at the airport were opened to provide somewhere more comfortable for passengers to rest.

British Airways said Heathrow was still expected to be congested on Monday and urged travellers not to go to the airport unless they had a confirmed booking for a flight that was operating.

It said passengers could get a full refund or rebook to travel up to the end of November but recommend they use its website.

Thousands of bags remain at Heathrow Airport, but BA has advised passengers not to return to collect them, saying they will be couriered to customers.

The airline said there was no evidence the computer failure was the result of a cyber attack. It denied claims by the GMB union that problem could be linked to the company outsourcing its IT work.

Gatwick Airport said it was continuing to advise customers travelling with British Airways to check the status of their flight with the airline before travelling to the airport.

Source: BBC

PHOTOS: Passengers stranded at airport terminals

BRITISH AIRWAYS was hit by a worldwide computer system power failure on Saturday, causing cancellations and delays for thousands of passengers.

All long-haul services will fly from Heathrow, but with delays, BA said.

The airline urged people to check the status of flights before before travelling to the airport.

More photos of stranded passengers below;

British Airways flights problem continues at Heathrow

NEWS UPDATE 

More than a third of British Airways flights from Heathrow have been cancelled as thousands of passengers were disrupted for a second day.

The airline was hit by a worldwide computer system power failure on Saturday, causing cancellations and delays for thousands of passengers.

All long-haul services will fly from Heathrow, but with delays, BA said.

The airline urged people to check the status of flights before before travelling to the airport.Heathrow Airport is providing an updated schedule on its website, as is Gatwick, where Sunday departures are delayed but not cancelled.
BA told people not to arrive at the airport too early, as people are not being admitted into Terminal 5 until 90 minutes before departure.
The airline apologised to customers for the issue, which is thought to have been caused by a problem with the IT system's power supply.
In a statement released on Sunday, chief executive Alex Cruz said: "I know this has been a horrible time for customers. We're not there yet, but we are doing our very best to sort things out for you."
The airline is liable to reimburse thousands of passengers for refreshments and hotel costs.
Customers displaced by flight cancellations can claim up to £200 a day for a room (based on two people sharing), £50 for transport between the hotel and airport, and £25 a day per adult for meals and refreshments.
One traveller from Seattle said she had spent the evening sleeping on the floor of a hotel conference room.
Ashley Tracey, who is trying to get to Mumbai for her friend's wedding, said she had been queuing to rebook her flight for six hours.
She said: "There's no information I can't seem to get through online, I don't live here so I don't have a phone that works here."
This morning, Heathrow Terminal 5 descended into chaos again as people arrived to rebook flights after theirs were cancelled yesterday; or new arrivals hoping they had not been affected by the company's IT failure.
Many people told me about the lack of knowledge or information provided by BA staff.
One American woman on a stop-over described how an employee asked what the queue they were standing in was for.
Some passengers slept on yoga mats provided by the airline as conference rooms were opened to provide somewhere more comfortable to rest.
A number of people arrived at the airport for 05:00 and were still none the wiser by lunch time whether they'd be home any time soon.
As the day has progressed, British Airways appears to have more of a grip on the situation. The departure lounge has calmed down and many have rearranged their flights.
But the terminal is still full of hour-long queues and for many this wasn't how they had hoped to spend their Bank Holiday weekend.
There have been reports that some passengers who departed from Heathrow on Saturday found their luggage was not at their destination when they landed.
Terry Page, 28, arrived in Fort Worth, Texas after delays and said "about 50" passengers did not have their check-in luggage.

British Airways aims to resume flights after major IT failure saw systems crash across the world

NEWS UPDATE - A global computer crash grounded British Airways flights from Heathrow and Gatwick airports — sparking chaos for 200,000 holidaymakers.

The airline’s check-in and operational systems crashed, with passengers trying to travel on Bank Holiday weekend left strande – with disruptions expected to carry on until tomorrow.

But British Airlines has now said it is aiming to operate a near normal schedule at Gatwick and the majority of services from Heathrow on Sunday.

Travellers tonight reported to the Sun Online that they have been able to check-in on Sunday flights, with it a flicker of hope for those left stranded.

It comes after angry travellers took to social media to complain about missed flights.

Delays were reported in the US, Rome, Prague, Milan, Stockholm and Malaga.

The log-jam also hit passengers landing as they had nowhere to disembark.

Amid the "carnage" ground staff resorted to scrawling messages for pilots on pieces of paper.Huge queues formed inside and outside airport buildings today, one of the hottest days of the year so far in the UK.

Despite initial reports from passengers that the disruptions had been caused by a cyber attack, BA has said that a "power supply issue" was most likely behind the global IT failure.

Chief executive Alex Cruz said: "We believe the root cause was a power supply issue and we have no evidence of any cyber attack."

In a statement earlier today, BA said: "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."

The airline have since announced that flights from the two airports will be cancelled for the rest of the day.

They added: "We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers and we are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."

There were reports of BA staff telling disgruntled passengers trying to get away for the Bank Holiday weekend that the company was under cyber attack.

Passenger Jo Josson said: "Officials are telling us there has been a cyber attack against BA's systems. Even the tannoy is affected."

Another, Michele Andjel, said a British Airways flight captain announced: "It appears to be a cyber attack."

Source: TheSun

Google Docs users hit by phishing scam

Google says it has stopped a phishing email that reached about a million of its customers.

The scam claimed to come from Google Docs - a service that allows people to share and edit documents online.

Users who clicked a link and followed instructions, risked sending the email on to everyone in their address box.

Google said it had stopped the attack "within approximately one hour", including through "removing fake pages and applications".

"While contact information was accessed and used by the campaign, our investigations show that no other data was exposed," Google said in an updated statement.

"There's no further action users need to take regarding this event; users who want to review third party apps connected to their account can visit Google Security Checkup."

Google said the spam campaign affected "fewer than 0.1%" of Gmail users. That works out to about one million people affected.

Phishing is an attempt to trick people into handing over their personal information by posing as a reputable company.

Dollar pressured ahead of US GDP report

The Greenback was vulnerable to heavy losses on Friday, with prices tumbling towards 98.80 as the mixture of soft economic data from the US this week, and rising uncertainty over Trump’s proposed tax reforms weighed on sentiment.

Much attention may be directed towards the pending Q1 2017 US GDP report that is being released later today and is widely expected to display a slowdown in economic momentum as accelerating inflation pressured consumer spending.

With a potential slowdown in first quarter US economic growth this year weighing on expectations of the Fed raising interest rates in June, the Dollar may be at threat of further depreciation. From a technical standpoint, the Dollar Index is heavily depressed on the daily charts. Persistent weakness below 98.80 could encourage a further decline towards 97.50.

Commodity spotlight – WTI Crude

Oil markets remain entangled in a fierce tug of war, with oversupply concerns and optimism over OPEC stabilizing the saturated markets. Although WTI Crude staged an impressive rebound during early trading on Friday amid a potential OPEC cut extension, the recent reports of Libya’s biggest oil field reopening may compound oversupply fears, consequently capping upside gains.

The live threat of US Shale’s incessant pumping undermining the OPEC production cut extension may expose oil prices to steeper losses. From a technical standpoint, WTI Crude remains bearish on the daily charts with bears potentially exploiting the technical bounce to drag prices lower. Previous support at $50 could transform into a solid resistance that opens a path towards $47.50. In an alternative scenario, a breakdown below $49.00 may open a similar route to $47.50.

Aliko Dangote rises by $500m, Amazon CEO adds $3.3bn

Some global billionaires are seeing their wealth explode dramatically, and Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote is not left behind.

On Thursday, Jeff Bezos, CEO of the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, saw $3.3 billion added to his wealth, following his company’s impressive performance.

Dangote, Africa’s richest man and president of the Dangote Group, also saw his fortune rise by $500 million (N152.5 billion) as one of his companies, Dangote Cement also recorded impressive growth in the first quarter of 2017.

According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Bezos is less than $5 billion away from becoming the world’s richest person in a bid to overtake Bill Gates. Bezos saw his fortune surpass $80 billion for the first time on Thursday.

As of Wednesday, Dangote was worth $9.91 billion, but climbed to $9.96 billion by the end of trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday.

The stock market gods also smiled on Bezos as Amazon shares added almost $50 after the company projected sales that may beat estimates in the current quarter.

This added to Amazon’s unbroken 20-year streak of double-digit revenue growth.

Amazon had first-quarter sales of $35.7 billion and earnings of $1.48 a share, beating Wall Street analyst expectations.

Bloomberg said Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin added $1.4 billion when shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc. rose as high as $938.18 on news that the smartphone ad business helped Alphabet post revenue of $20.12 billion and net income of $7.73 a share.

Gates added nearly $100 million with the same time frame, as Bezos ousted Warren Buffet, the legendary investor, to the third position on the world rich list.

Ex United States President, John F. Kennedy's diary sells for over $700k

On Wednesday, April 26, 2017, a diary with John F. Kennedy's unedited inner thoughts on politics and his personal beliefs was sold at a Boston auction for $718,750. The 61-page diary includes both handwritten and typed pages, which are bound in a black leather binder. Kennedy kept the diary during his brief time as a journalist in the summer of 1945.

He was working as a reporter for the Hearst newspaper company, a job his father, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, arranged and after covering the opening session of the United Nations in San Francisco that May, he went abroad to cover post-war Europe.

According to Bobby Livingston, spokesperson at RR Auction, which handled the sale, "this exceptional diary sheds light on a side of John F. Kennedy seldom explored and confirms America's enduring sense that he was one of the most qualified, intelligent, and insightful commanders-in-chief in American history".

A Nigerian Commercial Bank posts N26bn profit

Access Bank on Thursday announced impressive performance in all performance indicators as shown by its unaudited result for the first quarter which ended on March 31, 2017.

The bank posted profit after tax of N26 billion during the period compared with N19.4 billion achieved in the same period in 2016, an increase of 34 per cent.

The first quarter results of the bank released in Lagos on Thursday also reported that its profit before tax increased by 38 per cent to N31.2 billion against the N22.6 billion  in the same period in 2016.

The bank’s profit before tax rose by 38 per cent to N31.2 billion in contrast with N22.6 billion in the same period in 2016.

The bank’s gross earnings for the period grew by 44 per cent  to N116.0 billion against N80.3 billion recorded in the same period in 2016.

Its balance sheet closed positively with two per cent growth in total assets to N3.54 trillion from N3.48 trillion posted in 2016.

The group‘ recorded capital and liquidity ratios of 21.0 per cent and 46.3 per cent, respectively.

Mr Herbert Wigwe, the bank’s Group Managing Director,  was quoted by the statement as saying that 2017 marked the end of its  third five-year transformation journey.

Wigwe said that the bank would, in the coming months, focus on its strategic objective of improving profitability.

He said that the bank would continue to improve on profitability and shareholder value by maintaining its capital and liquidity positions.

Wigwe said that the company would implement cost management strategy and exploit retail business opportunities using its digital platforms to deepen  market share of the wholesale business.

Central Bank of Nigeria offers $100m forex to dealers

FOREX  MARKET: The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday said it had offered 100 million dollars to authorised dealers as its intervention to stabilise the foreign exchange market.

Mr Isaac Okorafor, Acting Director of the Corporate Communications Department of the apex bank disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

Okorafor, however, said that no intervention was made in the retail window in Thursday’s auction.

He said that the bank continued its weekly sale of foreign exchange to the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment to meet the needs of low-end users.

The apex bank spokesman further said that the bank had observed that quite a good number of dealers were adhering to the forex guidelines.

Okorafor said the CBN would continue to monitor activities of authorised dealers to ensure that no outfit or individual circumvented laid down forex rules.

He urged all concerned to put the Nigerian economy first, adding that the CBN was determined to guarantee the international value of the naira.

CBN suspends cashless policy, asks banks to refund charges

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has suspended its earlier directive on the implementation of cashless policy.

In a circular released on Friday, the apex bank instructed banks to revert to old charges and refund customers who had been debited.

CBN had earlier announced new charges on deposit and withdrawals above a threshold of N500,000.

The apex bank had directed banks to charge 5% and 10% for deposits and withdrawals above N40m in the corporate category.

The bank had fixed 1.5% and 2% for deposits ranging from N500,000 and N1 million in the individual category.

But in the circular signed by Dipo Fatokun, director, banking and payments system department, CBN said the existing policy before the announcement of the new policy shall remain in place in Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Abia, Anambra, Rivers and Abuja.

“You will recall that a directive was issued on the nationwide implementation of the cashless policy vide our circulars with reference numbers BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/04/001 dated February 21 and BPS/DIR/GEN/CIR/04/002 dated March 16,” the circular read.

“Please note that the new withdrawal and deposit processing fee charges above the threshold, as contained in the circulars referenced above, are hereby suspended until further notice. The position of the policy shall now revert to the status quo ante.”

The old charges to be reverted to 3% processing fee for withdrawals above N500,000 in the individual category and 5% for withdrawals above N3 million.

“The new policy already applied effective April 1, 2017 as contained in the circulars in reference above should be reversed and the old charges be applied. All necessary refunds should be made accordingly.”

CBN injects $280m into FX market, increases sale to BDCs

As part of its efforts to sustain liquidity in the foreign exchange market, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has injected $280 million into the market.

The apex bank has also announced on Tuesday that it would now sell $20,000 twice a week to licensed bureaux de change, a 100 percent increase from the previous $10,000 twice a week.

It also announced the opening of bids for offering $100m wholesale seven to 45 days forwards through the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).

“A breakdown of the intervention shows that invisibles such as basic travel allowance, personal travel allowance, medical bills and tuition received $80 million, while the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) window received $100 million,” the apex bank said in a statement.

“Together with the wholesale bid auction, the bank sold $280 million into the market on Tuesday.”

Isaac Okorafor, the bank’s spokesman, confirmed the releases, saying the new window for SMEs would boost businesses through the importation of eligible finished and semi-finished items.

Okorafor explained that the CBN introduced the use of FORM X for the SMEs to ease the documentation challenges usually encountered by this category of businesses.

He said SMEs were allowed to purchase $20,000 per quarter on this arrangement.

Okorafor said all SME applicants must fill the form with a supporting application letter as well as beneficiary invoice and bank wire transfer.

He said eligible applicants must have operated their bank accounts for a minimum of six months.

On the sale of forex to BDCs, Okorafor explained that the decision was taken to ensure that the high volume demand by low-end users were met promptly.

He also said the apex bank would not tolerate unscrupulous actions from banks or their staff, and would not hesitate to bring serious sanctions on offenders.

Facebook's Whatsapp Is Getting Into Digital Payments in India

Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp is getting into digital payments in India, a first for a global messaging service that’s only just begun to explore ways to generate revenue.

It’s chosen to kick off that maiden effort in India, a market dominated by Alibaba-backed digital payments leader Paytm but where WhatsApp’s 200 million users outnumber any other country. WhatsApp wants to “contribute more to India’s vision for digital commerce,” it said in a statement Wednesday. The company also advertised on its website for a “Digital Transactions Lead, India” to be based in Menlo Park, California, but with an ability to understand local financial standards such as India’s digital-ID program Aadhaar and its banking payments interface.

Facebook agreed to buy WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, though that price tag eventually rose to $22 billion because of the social networks’ rising stock. Investors have been anxious to see how Mark Zuckerberg makes money from the deal. Rival services in Asia, most notably Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat, have successfully opened up their platforms so businesses can interact with customers. It’s a strategy Facebook has also been taking with its own communications app, Messenger.

A WhatsApp representative declined to elaborate on the initiative when contacted about the posting, which local media first reported on. But the job ad suggests India is merely the beginning of a foray into digital payments. The company requires someone who “should help scale global support for digital transactions on WhatsApp.”

India is seeing unprecedented activity in digital payments, particularly since the government banned high-value currency notes in November and took a series of steps to incentivize digital payments in a country where cash remains king. Among the market’s recent entrants is Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins-backed Truecaller.

Ford stops exportation of 500 vehicles to Nigeria over recent recession

                                 
There are indications that Ford Motor Company has suspended its planned exportation of 500 units of vehicles meant for the Nigerian market owing to the current economic recession.

The United States automaker was said to have assembled the vehicles in its South African factory and completed all arrangements to ship them to Nigeria before halting the decision.

Prof. Okey Iheduru of the Arizona State University, United States, hinted at a forum in Lagos that Ford had dismantled over 500 units of vehicles meant for the Nigerian market because the Coscharis Group, its local representative, could not accommodate them.

The General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Services, Coscharis Group, Mr. Abiona Babarinde, who confirmed this in an emailed response to our correspondent’s enquiry, attributed the development to “forex-related issues.”

He said the vehicles were “to be imported as SKD (semi-knocked down) kits for (auto) assembly but got stuck in South Africa because of slow sale of what we already have in stock in Nigeria.”

Ford recently discontinued its business relationship with one of its two partners in Nigeria, RT Briscoe, leaving only Coscharis Motors as its sole representative in the country.

A statement from the Ford Motor Company of Sub-Saharan Africa sent to our correspondent via email said tough economic climate arising from the fall in oil prices, foreign exchange shortages and rapid devaluation of the naira was adversely affecting its operation in the region, including Nigeria.

The statement, which was sent by its spokesperson, Chipo Punungwe, read in part, “We continue to work through a tough economic environment in the sub-Saharan African region, including various economic factors such as lower oil prices, foreign exchange shortages and the rapid devaluation of local currencies, which have led to higher than normal inventory levels.”

Assemblers and dealers in new vehicles have complained about a drastic drop in vehicle sale this year due to recession.

A number of the companies, it was learnt, had to lay off some of their workers as their annual capacity utilisation had dropped by 97 per cent, from 500,000 to 15,000 vehicles.

The 15,000 new vehicles currently being produced in the country are less than what Toyota Nigeria Limited alone sold in 12 months some years ago.

Notwithstanding the current economic situation, Ford said it would continue to work with its partner, the Coscharis Group, to deliver quality vehicles and improved auto service to its customers in Nigeria.

“With Coscharis, we will continue to manage our business, review and optimise the movement of stock to ensure that we have a sufficient supply of vehicles to fulfil customers’ needs,” it stated.

Federal Government wants NIPOST to offer banking services

The Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, says the ministry has submitted a proposal to President Muhammadu Buhari for the establishment of the NIPOST Bank to serve the interest of people in the rural areas.

He said over 1,500 postal agencies across the country would serve as banking halls in the proposed NIPOST Bank.

The minister, who spoke in Ibadan, said the ongoing reform of the Nigerian Postal Services would require legislative intervention to reposition the agency to meet the 21st century standard.

He said the reform would expand the mandate of NIPOST.

He said, “I have submitted this to the President who has mandated the Attorney General of the Federation to look into it. We may have to wait for the amendment of the Postal Service Bill.

“But if the AGF feels we can go ahead without the legislature’s permission, we will go on and expand the service. I hope that before the end of this year, we will be able to implement some of the visions.”

He added, “We are thinking of establishing a bank that will have branches in all the 1,500 agencies across Nigeria. Right now, banks are not in half of the council areas of Nigeria. They are only concentrated in centres of the cities with high commercial activities. A lot of people living in the rural areas are excluded from the financial services that banks offer.

“We want to use the postal agencies as banking hall also, where financial transactions can be done so that people in the city can transfer money to their loved ones in the rural areas using the postal agencies.”

The minister said that people in the rural areas would be able to save money in the bank created by the vision and pay for goods bought from the cities, noting that jobs would be created in the process.

“This innovation will require new workers and a new management structure to operate,” Shittu said.

Asian bank appoints ex-minister to advisory panel

                                 

Nigeria ex-Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been appointed a member of the international advisory panel of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Mr Song Liyan, AIIB Senior Communication Officer, in a statement made available to newsmen on Friday, announced that Okonjo-Iweala would join 10 other key persons on the panel.

“The Panel provides impartial, objective and independent advice to the President, allowing the Bank to benefit from the international experience and expertise of panel members,” Liyan said.

He quoted AIIB President, Jin Liqun, as saying that the panel members would advise the bank on the development of its strategy.

“It is a great honour to convene such an experienced and diverse group of international leaders to advise on the development of the Bank’s strategy.

“I have no doubt that the advice the panel provides will help shape the development of the Bank in the years ahead.

“I could not ask for a better group of ambassadors to help promote our new Bank to the world,” Jin said.

The panel members are former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Dr Zeti Aziz, former Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and former Swedish finance minister Anders Borg.

The others are former Timor-Leste finance minister Emilia Pires, former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern and former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Global Foundation secretary-general Steve Howard.

Others include Korea National Diplomatic Academy chair professor and former South Korean deputy prime minister and strategy and finance minister Dr Oh-Seok Hyun.

Former U.S. ambassador Paul Speltz and London School of Economics professor and former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa are the remaining panel members.

AIIB, a multilateral international development bank was set up on December 25, 2015, with an initial capital of 100 billion U.S. Dollars (RM419bn), one million shares and an initial paid-up capital of 20 billion U.S. Dollars.