Around 900 flights have been cut from flight schedules for the forthcoming Bank Holiday weekend with staff shortages blamed for many of the cancellations. Amid recently announced high-profile airline flight cuts, analysis by aviation experts Cirium, has revealed the extent of potential disruption.
Cirium also confirmed the number of flights departing from the UK over the forthcoming extended Bank Holiday weekend period is 21 per cent lower than in 2019, according to latest figures. The firm said that, since July 1, about 900 flights have been cut from flight schedules for period, from August 26-30.
Figures confirm that thousands of seats in total have been axed from flight schedules for the holiday period causing travel chaos for hordes of holidaymakers
British Airways has cancelled the most and removed nearly 380 of the flights departing the UK over Bank Holiday period. regional airline flybe has removed more than 130 flights, while low-cost carrier easyJet has axed around 90 flights
On July 1, there were 14,030 flights planned to depart the UK over August 26-30 with an estimated 2,455,000 seats. But that figure has been reduced to about 13,130 flights, representing an estimated around 2,317,000 seats.
Paul Charles, of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: “It’s astonishing to see over a quarter of a million seats cut from flight schedules, at a time when demand to fly remains high. Some UK airports are continuing to impose caps on the numbers departing, so disrupting travel plans and forcing seat prices higher due to the squeeze on availability.
“Our aviation sector should be growing strongly on one of the busiest weekends of the year, and not held back by staff shortages and poor planning by airports and ground handlers. There are aircraft ready to be used but not enough people to get them prepared and off the ground.”
