British Airways has cancelled more than 120 short-haul flights to and from its main base, London Heathrow airport on Wednesday.
The Independent calculates 26 domestic flights have been grounded, including three of the seven planned round-trips from Heathrow to both Edinburgh and Glasgow.
A total of 102 short-haul international flights are cancelled, including three round-trips to and from Paris CDG, Lyon and Geneva, as well as two return journeys to Athens and Rome.
BA says the flight cancellations are all pre-planned and that passengers were given advance notice – with some departures taken out of the schedules many weeks ahead.
While airlines will not disclose passenger loads on the grounds of commercial sensitivity, if an average of 80 people were booked on each flight at the point of cancellation then more than 10,000 travellers will have been affected by today’s cancellations.
British Airways departures from Heathrow
Domestic: 13 outbound, 26 sectors in total
- Aberdeen
- Belfast City (2)
- Edinburgh (3)
- Glasgow (3)
- Inverness
- Jersey
- Manchester
- Newcastle
Europe: 51 outbound, 102 sectors in total
- Amsterdam (2)
- Athens (2)
- Barcelona
- Berlin (2)
- Bologna (2)
- Brussels
- Budapest Prague
- Copenhagen (2)
- Dublin
- Dusseldorf
- Geneva (3)
- Gothenburg
- Hamburg (2)
- Hanover
- Larnaca
- Lisbon
- Lyon (3)
- Madrid (2)
- Marseille (2)
- Milan Linate
- Milan Malpensa
- Munich
- Nice
- Oslo
- Paris CDG (3)
- Pisa
- Rome (2)
- Stockholm
- Tel Aviv
- Tirana
- Toulouse
- Venice
- Vienna
- Zurich
British Airways is bringing in aircraft and crew from its Oneworld partner Finnair to try to stabilise its schedules over the summer.
All passengers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to new flights on the original day of departure if a seat is available, even if it is on a rival airline.
If the cancellation was announced less than two weeks in advance and the airline is responsible, they are also due cash compensation.
Besides the cancellations by BA, the UK’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, is cancelling around 30 flights daily – particularly to and from its largest base, Gatwick. The carrier says most passengers are able “to switch onto alternative flights on the same day”.
