BRITS are facing a holiday nightmare as airlines announce a new wave of cancellations – and Heathrow is the hardest hit.
Airlines have until Friday to tell Heathrow officials which flights will no longer operate.
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British Airways is expected to cancel the most flights. The airline’s problems were caused by an amnesty on take-off and landing slots at Britain’s busiest airport this week, the Telegraph reports.
BA planned to carry 1.8 million passengers on more than 9,000 flights from Heathrow in July alone.
Holidaymakers have already been hit by months of cancellations, delays and missing luggage as airlines and airports struggle to meet customer demand due to staff shortages.
Passengers were trapped in long queues on Friday after EasyJet workers went on strike in Spain, with further industrial action planned across the continent.
The amnesty at Heathrow is expected to trigger a wave of cancellations over the summer.
BA, which is the largest airline at Heathrow, will have to reassign 80-85% of its passengers whose flights have been canceled in recent days.
An airline spokesperson said the amnesty slots “help us provide the certainty our customers deserve”.
They say the move makes it easier to “consolidate some of our quieter daily flights to multi-frequency destinations well in advance and protect more of our holiday flights.”
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We encourage airlines to take this opportunity to reconsider their summer schedules without penalty and to notify passengers as soon as possible of any changes.”
EasyJet cabin crew today began a nine-day strike at bases in Barcelona, Malaga and Palma.
Airline staff belonging to Spain’s USO union announced they would step down last month after easyJet confirmed 11,000 flights would be cut from its summer schedules.
The union is demanding a 40% increase in the base salary of low-wage cabin crew.
Heathrow was also forced to cancel other flights on Thursday, affecting thousands of travellers.
London Airport has told 30 airlines they must cut flights during the morning rush. The cancellations are said to have affected up to 5,000 passengers who were notified of the changes at short notice.
Fuming Brits complained on social media calling it “carnage” and “utter chaos”.
One man wrote: ‘Absolute chaos, complete chaos and only discovered at check-in without prior notification.’
Another wrote: “Total chaos at Heathrow this morning. BA flights canceled and lousy customer service!”
A third said: “Over two hours since landing and still not out of @HeathrowAirport, it’s a mess.”
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