Half-term holidays at risk as British Airways cancels thousands more flights

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Half-term holidays at risk as British Airways cancels thousands more flights

Written By:

sarahdavidson

Posted:

22/08/2022

Updated:

22/08/2022

Written By:

sarahdavidson

Posted:

Updated:

22/08/2022

British Airways will scrap thousands of flights over the next six months, including 629 round trips between 12 September and 29 October and short haul flights to Europe over the half-term break.

The airline has said affected passengers will be rebooked onto alternative flights but as many as 12 routes a day due to fly out of Heathrow before the end of 29 October would be cancelled.

It comes after Heathrow Airport said last week that its summer cap on the number of passengers flying in and out of the airport would be extended from 11 September until 29 October.

Now British Airways has confirmed thousands more flights will be scrapped betwen then and March next year, with 5,000 routes cut to and from the UK affecting up to one million passengers.

Short haul flights to popular holiday destinations including Lisbon and Amsterdam are affected while long haul routes to destinations still imposing Covid restrictions are also for the chop.

This year has proved chaotic for British holidaymakers, with Heathrow forced to restrict passenger numbers to 100,000 a day in July after Gatwick announced a similar cap for the summer months.

Frankfurt and Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport also put in place equivalent capacity limits over the summer, with Schiphol deciding to extend its cap through to the end of October as well.

In July the airport followed Gatwick by announcing it would restrict the number of passengers going through its doors to 100,00 per day amid chaos caused by cancelled flights and staff shortages.

A statement from British Airways said: “Following Heathrow’s decision to extend its passenger cap we’re making adjustments to our short-haul schedule for the next two months.

“While the vast majority of our customers will travel as planned and we’re protecting key holiday destinations over half-term, we will need to make some further cancellations up to the end of October.

“In addition, we’re giving customers travelling with us this winter notice of some adjustments to our schedule, which will include consolidating some of our short-haul flights to destinations with multiple services. We’ll be offering customers affected by any of these changes an alternative flight with British Airways or another airline or the option of a refund. ”

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