British Airways warning – airline cancels flights due to travel chaos

BRITISH Airways is cutting flights in the coming weeks due to recent travel chaos.

The airline has reduced its schedule between now and the end of May, with Brits on affected flights over Easter rebooked on alternative seats if affected.

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Hundreds of BA flights have been disrupted in recent weeks due to IT issues, with passengers left waiting for hours for their luggage and being sent home empty-handed.

Last weekend, 192 BA flights were disrupted which led to hundreds of arrivals waiting for hours to get their luggage.

The airline’s chief executive Sean Doyle announced today that flights would be cancelled over the next few weeks to avoid more travel chaos.

According to the Daily Mail, Mr Doyle admitted in an internal message to staff that the number of flights at both Heathrow and Gatwick will be reduced “over the coming weeks to give us more wriggle room.”

A spokesperson told Sun Online Travel: “While the vast majority of our flights continue to operate as planned, as a precaution we’ve slightly reduced our schedule between now and the end of May as we ramp back up.

“We’ve apologised to customers who are affected by this and to limit the inconvenience have re-booked them onto earlier or later flights on the same day they were originally due to travel where possible.

“We’re also offering them the opportunity to book onto an alternative flight or request a full refund.”

The airline has put part of the blame onto difficulties rebuilding the business after the pandemic, after two years of travel bans that hit the aviation industry badly.

They said the decision to reduce flights would help them provide “a consistent service for customers rather than letting them down at the last minute.”

In February, more than 500 flights were disrupted after the flagship carrier suffered its biggest IT failure for years.

There was more travel chaos last week after passengers flying into Heathrow Airport were stuck in “quarter of a mile” long queues.

Furious arrivals slammed the airport and shared pictures of the snaking queues of frustrated travellers who were stuck waiting over an hour to get through immigration at Terminal 5.

In other BA news, the airline has altered its Covid voucher policy, giving customers the freedom to swap their tickets for a cash refund.

In 2020, BA was forced to cancel hundreds of flights due to the pandemic.

At the time, it asked customers to take a travel voucher for the value of the flight instead of cash refunds.

Despite the airline announcing it was scrapping its mandatory face mask policy, Brits flying with BA are warned they must still wear face masks if they are travelling to 50 destinations.

Jet2, TUI and easyJet have all relaxed their mask policies, leaving it up to passengers to make a personal choice on whether or not to wear one.

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