British Airways: Why are so many flights being cancelled and what are the effects for passengers?

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…