Brits to face further travel woes as airlines prepare to announce fresh wave of cancelled flights
Airlines using the country’s busiest airport are readying to announce a new torrent of cancellations next week.
According to The Telegraph, airlines using the west London airport must tell officials which flights will be scrapped by Friday, before the school summer holidays begin.
Tens of thousands of Brits are set to have their holiday plans scuppered or disrupted with the disruption, which comes as a result of cabin crew and airport staff shortages.
It has been reported that a large proportion of the cancellations will concern British Airways flights.
The airline had previously intended to fly 1.8m passengers across more than 9,000 flights from Heathrow in July alone.
Passengers have faced eleventh-hour cancellations and delays, as well as lengthy queues at airports this summer so far.
On Thursday last week, more than one in 25 flights out of the country were cancelled on the day.
Heathrow welcomed a rejig of flight schedules and said cancellations had been caused by an amnesty on take-off and landing slots.
Reworking the schedule would “help us to provide the certainty our customers deserve by making it easier to consolidate some of our quieter daily flights to multi-frequency destinations well in advance,” the airport stated.
British Airways said slot alleviation would help the airline to protect more of its flights for holidaymakers.
“Slot alleviation allows airlines to temporarily reduce their schedules but still retain their slots for the next year to maintain networks and provide consumers with certainty and consistency,” the airline said.
“Allocating slots according to the (World Airport Slots Guide system) means airlines can offer the consistent services and efficient connections that consumers are looking for and protect jobs and create growth in the UK.”