One thousand five hundred more flights, largely in July, have been canceled by British Airways. As a result, tens of thousands of travelers whose flights were scheduled to depart from Heathrow and Gatwick this summer will be impacted by the most recent wave of cancellations.
Despite a rise in demand for air travel, the industry has been experiencing a staffing crisis. British Airways announced that “regrettably” more cuts were necessary despite having previously cut 10% of the number of planned flights between April and October.
The UK’s largest airline stated: “We took preventive measures earlier this year to decrease our summer schedule to give customers as much warning as possible about any changes to their travel arrangements.
The airline claimed that it was getting in touch with passengers to “apologize and offer to rebook them or issue a full refund.”
The wave of cancellations occurs in advance of Friday’s deadline for an amnesty to give airlines a brief window to return airport slots in the summer season they are not confident they will be able to operate. The Department set the deadline for Transport (DfT), which had previously announced it last month.
BA is anticipated to make additional cancellation announcements in the months leading up to the deadline.
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Airlines can reserve airport slots, which give them the go-ahead to take off or land at a specific time on a specific day. In most cases, airlines that cancel flights run the danger of losing the slots and suffering a loss of revenue.
A strike by hundreds of British Airways check-in agents at Heathrow, which could severely disrupt the busy summer school holiday travel season, is being planned at the same time as the cancellations.
The Covid epidemic resulted in the loss of a significant number of aviation industry jobs, and airlines and airports have found it challenging to find enough workers in time to handle the spike in demand for travel.
Before announcing the airport slots amnesty, Gatwick stated that it would be decreasing the number of flights during the summer due to manpower shortages.
Manchester Airport has also issued a warning, stating that it won’t be able to resume its pre-pandemic standards until the autumn.
Over the Easter and half-term vacations, a number of flights were abruptly canceled, affecting thousands of customers.
Because of the earlier disruption, the government and the aviation watchdog, the Civil Aviation Authority, wrote to airlines to advise them to make sure their summer itineraries were “deliverable… based on the resources you and your contractors expect to have available.”
