BRITISH Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) will face shareholders this week for the first time since a major IT collapse left tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

The firm’s AGM in Madrid on Thursday, will see questions asked about how the airline could have ended up in a position where it needed to cancel 672 flights.

Around 750,000 passengers were caught up in the chaos.

Though blamed on “human error”, IAG, which was formed from the merger of BA and Spain’s Iberia in 2011, have been accused of cost cutting.

Willie Walsh has gained plaudits for his turnaround of BA and Iberia, but he now has to compete against low cost airlines targetting the lucrative transatlantic trade.

WOW and Norwegian Air fly no-frill from Scotland to the states for signicantly cheaper.

The company recently responded by launching a new low-cost transatlantic airline, Level.

Meanwhile, it faces growing discontent from cabin crew over pay and conditions, and is trying to close a £2.8bn pensions black hole.

Over the weekend, staff called off a four-day strike.

Around 2,000 members of Unite were due to walk out on Friday in the latest action over a long-running pay dispute.