After cancelling tens of thousands of Heathrow flights during the summer season – mainly due to a lack of resources – British Airways is grounding more than 12,000 more departures over the next seven months.
Around two million seats will be lost, reducing options for travellers. Why is it happening – and what are the implications? These are the key questions and answers.
What happened this summer?
The summer season for aviation began in late March 2022. It soon became clear that the hopes of travellers – and airlines – for a smooth return to normal, pre-Covid flying would not materialise. Airports struggled with security checks for passengers, while ground handling emerged as a serious concern at all leading UK hubs.
Ground handlers are generally contracted by airlines to run everything from check-in to baggage loading and unloading, and – according to London Heathrow, BA’s main base – are still at only 70 per cent of staffing compared with before the coronavirus pandemic.
The two biggest UK airlines promised bigger schedules than they were able to deliver: easyJet rapidly abandoned its plans for the biggest-ever summer programme at Gatwick, while British Airways cancelled more than 30,000 flights, affecting millions of travellers, mainly to and from Heathrow.
Surely BA cancelled because of Heathrow’s limit on passengers?
Not directly. In July Heathrow brought in a mandatory cap of 100,000 departing passengers per day, in a bid to ease the overstretch across the airport – from security queues to mishandled baggage.
But long before the cap came in, British Airways cancelled tens of thousands of flights to and from its main base. When the Heathrow limit was brought in, BA was almost fully compliant with the need to scale down operations.
Initially the Heathrow limit applied only to 11 September, but this has since been extended to the end of October when the winter season begins.
As a result, British Airways says it is trimming back some more flights to comply with the cap, with 1,258 more departures axed – representing 200,000 seats.
The airline says: “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.”
For the summer season, which has another two months to run, 13 per cent of British Airways capacity has been taken out.
What happens next?
BA says: “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.”
Translated, those “adjustments” add up to British Airways axing around 10,000 domestic and European departures through the winter season (late October 2022 to late March 2023). In addition, hundreds of intercontinental flights are being grounded.
In total, nearly two million seats will be taken out of the market.
I thought everything was going to get easier from autumn onwards?
The overstretch will certainly ease, but not all the gaps will be filled.
BA has talked about cuts “to improve operational resilience and provide certainty for customers”.
In addition, an economic downturn in the UK and beyond would lead to a reduction in demand – especially for normally lucrative business routes.
Where will the cuts be felt most?
Most of the cancelled flights will be on routes with multiple daily services. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, will be affected disproportionately.
For example, on Friday 23 September, British Airways has only two departures from Heathrow to Aberdeen – both in the evening. In normal times there would be between six and eight daily flights spread across the day.
Good for the environment – but what are the consequences for passengers?
Less choice and higher fares. On that Aberdeen service, the lowest fare is £215 buying a month out – at least twice as much as you would expect it to be.
In addition, if you are connecting at Heathrow, it could also mean a very long wait between flights.
For example, if you were flying in on an overnight service to Heathrow from Asia, Africa or the Americas, with a connection to Aberdeen, you would expect a swift transfer on one of the two departures before 9am. But on 23 September, for example, you would have to wait all day at Terminal 5 for a connection.
What are passengers’ rights if their flight is grounded?
A refund, or an alternative flight on any airline that will get you there on the same day. But compensation is not payable as long as the airline gives at least two weeks’ notice – which it will to almost all passengers.
Is this cull a sign that British Airways is in trouble?
BA is certainly not in trouble. Like other carriers, it lost some great staff during the coronavirus pandemic and has struggled to re-launch at scale.
The cuts in British Airways flights are benefiting all the airlines, including BA itself, because demand is strong: forcing up prices for those that remain.
The airline’s most precious resource is its slots, and I imagine the bosses can scarcely believe their luck: they have been granted a “slot amnesty” by the UK government for the summer, meaning they will not lose any of their peak season portfolio of permissions to land and take-off.
Through the winter, a temporary rule means BA need only operate 70 per cent of its slots to retain them – which the latest cull will comply with.
In addition, British Airways can blame some of the summer cancellations on Heathrow, and fares are rocketing because of the lack of capacity.
It’s a near-perfect result for the airline, though not for its passengers.
