British Airways is set to be fined more than £183m by the Information Commissioner’s Office over a customer data breach, the company said.

Chairman Alex Cruz said the airline was “disappointed” by the initial finding.

He said: “British Airways responded quickly to a criminal act to steal customers’ data. We have found no evidence of fraud/fraudulent activity on accounts linked to the theft. We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this event caused.”

Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA’s owner International Airlines Group (IAG), said the airline would make “any necessary appeals” against the penalty.

The total proposed fine of £183.39 million is the equivalent of 1.5% of BA’s worldwide turnover for the financial year ending December 31.

It relates to the theft of customers’ personal and financial information between August 21 2018 and September 5 2018 from the website ba.com and the airline’s mobile app.