BRITISH Airways' owner has confirmed almost 200,000 more customers could have had personal details stolen in a huge cyber hack.

IAG said today 185,000 people could be affected, on top of the 380,000 customers' details stolen between August 21 and September 5.

A statement released this afternoon said: "While British Airways does not have conclusive evidence that the data was removed from its systems, it is taking a prudent approach in notifying potentially affected customers, advising them to contact their bank or card provider as a precaution.

"Since the announcement on September 6, 2018, British Airways can confirm that it has had no verified cases of fraud."

British Airways Chief Executive Alex Cruz previously said the company was "100 per cent committed" to compensating customers.

However the airline could still be fined under the provisions of the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Out of the 380,000 customers who previously had their payment card details identified, 244,000 were affected.

And out of this recent batch, it is understood BA is notifying 77,000 people that some personal card data may have been compromised.

Those potentially affected are people who made reward bookings between April 21 and July 28.

Chun Wong, partner at Hodge Jones and Allen which specialises in data breach cases, said: “This is one of the biggest data breaches this country has ever seen and will have undoubtedly left hundreds of thousands of people concerned that their card details could be fraudulently used.

"It is crucial that huge companies like BA have the necessary cyber security in place to ensure this type of breach does not happen again. If consumers can show a material loss as a result of the breach they may be able to take legal action against British Airways.”