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British Airways To Cancel 10,000 Flights From Heathrow Airport As Winter Draws Near

by Sushmita Mahanta
British Airways To Cancel 10,000 Flights From Heathrow Airport As Winter Draws Near

The chaos at Heathrow Airport doesn’t seem to stop and as such British Airways have decided to cancel 10,000 more flights from its hub at Heathrow Airport from Sep-March, citing staff shortage. The Airlines said that by doing so they aim to minimize disruption over the winter as its May-Oct capacity is 13% lower & for winter, it is down 8%. British Airways further revealed that it will also cut a dozen round-trips per day, totaling 629 flights, until the end of October.

Passengers Affected By The Cancellations Will Be Offered An Alternative Flight Or A Refund

Pandemic has taken a toll on the Airline industry and most airports, including Heathrow, are suffering from more demand and less staff to cater to those. As such British Airways canceling a good number of flights from its hub at Heathrow citing staff shortage is totally understandable.
“We are making adjustments to our short-haul schedule for the next two months… We will need to make some further cancellations up to the end of October,” a spokesperson from British Airways told Reuters in an emailed statement.
However, the Airline revealed that passengers affected by the cancellations will be offered a flight with British Airways or another airline or a refund. That being said, the airline urged that it’s important to understand that the impact for customers was “minimal”, with the majority of flights unchanged. “Customers booked for winter will be able to travel as planned and are being given several months’ notice of any changes,” the airline said in a statement.

British Airways Mindful Of Heathrow Airport’s 100,000 Per Day Passenger Limit

After the pandemic, Heathrow Airport is dealing with a lot of issues in terms of long hauls, passenger demand, luggage, etc. As such the airport came up with limiting the passengers to 1 Lakh per day for better management. And currently, Heathrow Airport has again extended the cap of 100,000 per day passenger limit till 29 October. Keeping the same in mind, earlier British Airways had suspended sales of tickets on short-haul flights from the airport for two weeks. The airline had already cut more than 30,000 flights over the wider summer period and was planning an increase of those towards the winter. But with Heathrow Airport’s extended passenger cap, the chances of it look dim.

Also read: Heathrow Airport In London Limits Passenger Count To 1 Lakh Per Day