Due to Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral, a 15% schedule adjustment is expected at Heathrow Airport on Monday. It was stated that this was done to guarantee that the skies over London were silent throughout the celebrations.
As a result, there will be flight cancellations, including 100 British Airways flights and 4 Virgin Atlantic flights.
A French air traffic control strike on Friday is expected to impact tens of thousands of travelers. Many flights that fly over France, not just to and from the country, will be among the canceled ones.
Heathrow flight disruption
Heathrow said that all departures and arrivals on Monday would be delayed for 15 minutes before and after the two-minute moment of silence that would follow the burial.
Following that, there won’t be any arrivals between 13:45 BST and 14:20 BST for the hearse procession and no departures between 15:03 BST and 16:45 BST for the formal procession via the Long Walk to Windsor Castle.
Departures will be lowered between 16:45 and 21:00 BST to support the committal service at St. George’s Chapel.
In order to reduce noise during the private family service and interment, flights will also be diverted around Windsor Castle.
Heathrow apologized for the inconvenience but added that, out of respect, alterations would be made to the airport’s to-and-from operations on Monday to prevent noise annoyance at particular locations at particular times.
Due to guidelines from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), travelers whose flights are severely delayed or canceled on Monday due to adjustments at Heathrow will not be legally eligible for financial compensation. This is because these are likely to be seen as extraordinary conditions.
Airlines do, however, provide passengers with refunds or rebookings.
British Airways stated that its cancellations were on short-haul European flights where numerous services operate on the same route and that it was adding larger planes to let consumers rebook on functioning flights when possible.
Alternatively, customers can decide to get a refund. No long-distance BA flights will be impacted; however, several will have their departure times changed.
Virgin Atlantic also expressed regret for the inconvenience. A spokeswoman stated that passengers on the impacted flights between Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Heathrow would be rebooked on alternate same-day services whenever possible, or they could rebook for later dates, receive a voucher, or request a refund.
It stated that the airport and airlines were collaborating closely with the provider of air navigation services, NATS, to lessen the effects of these restrictions on travelers.
A representative for Heathrow stated that more staff would be available in the terminals to assist travelers and that people were encouraged to take public transportation rather than drive because the area around the airport would be quite congested.
Other adjustments at Heathrow during the period of national mourning include commemorating the National Moment of Reflection with a one-minute silence at 20:00 on Sunday, presenting the Queen’s burial on screens at the airport on Monday, and closing non-essential shops.
Restaurants, cafes, and taverns will be open, as well as stores deemed “vital,” like WH Smith, Boots, and Travelex.
French strikes
Separately, a French air traffic control strike on Friday is anticipated to have an impact on tens of thousands of passengers.
The cancellation of 420 flights impacted eighty thousand people by Ryanair, most of which were flying across France.
Air France announced it would only operate 45% of its short-haul flights, while EasyJet will cancel 76 flights and British Airways will cancel 22.
Read Also: Queen Elizabeth II dies after 70 years on the British throne
As inflation climbs, the SNCTA air traffic control union claimed that the reasons for the walkout were recruitment and rising pay.
All impacted passengers, according to Ryanair, were alerted this morning. Typically, the low-cost airline runs about 3,000 flights every day.
The operations director of Ryanair, Neal McMahon, referred to it as “inexplicable” because “thousands of European nationals and visitors will have their travel plans unfairly disrupted.”
According to him, domestic flights within France are protected by French law, but flights over the nation are not.
