What should be a summer of joy is looking more like a summer of hell for some travellers, as large-scale cancellations of flights continue – with everything from strikes to Covid-19 jeopardising further trips.
A fresh wave of cancellations expected to be made this for the remainder of the summer. So how confident can people with holiday bookings be about their plans going ahead?
Where were the big problems this weekend – and what were the causes?
In sheer numbers of flights grounded, London Heathrow was worst affected – with British Airways cancelling well over 200 flights in advance due to staff shortage. Virgin Atlantic’s first arrival from New York was grounded due to cancellations stipulated by Heathrow airport last Thursday.
Problems increased on Saturday afternoon when the fuelling system failed at Heathrow. In addition, Covid intervened and a number of Lufthansa flights to and from Germany, and Aer Lingus flights to Ireland, were cancelled due to crew catching coronavirus.
At Gatwick, easyJet, Wizz Air and British Airways once again cancelled many flights because of a lack of resources, with a significant number at short notice – and some due to strikes by easyJet cabin crew based in Spain.
Similar problems are continuing this week, with further strikes threatened by passenger service agents working for British Airways at Heathrow and by pilots on the Scandinavian airline SAS.
In addition, there were the usual technical problems such as the Belfast-Liverpool round trip on easyJet on Sunday night.
Are more cancellations expected this week?
One reason for the many cancellations is that some airlines have overpromised the schedules they have the resources to operate. They did this partly to preserve slots – the precious permissions to land and take off – at key airports.
They are incentivised to do so by the “use it or lose it” policy which means they must use the slots at least 70 per cent of the time this summer.
On 21 June the UK government announced it was granting a “slot amnesty” meaning carriers can cancel some of the flights for which they have already started selling tickets, knowing that the permits will be preserved for next summer. They have until Friday 8 July to finalise their plans – and a small proportion of passengers will find their flights axed.
Is my holiday likely to be affected?
Statistically, that is extremely unlikely. Ryanair, Jet2 and Tui say they have no plans to make pre-emptive cancellations.
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