UK Flight Disruption - Summer 2022

[Scotrail314209]

Prompted to make this thread over the announcement from British Airways that they intend to cancel 10,300 short haul flights until October.

British Airways to cancel 10,300 more flights

The airline says the cancellations will affect short-haul flights between August and the end of October.

www.bbc.co.uk

British Airways is to cut 10,300 more short-haul flights due to feature in its schedule between August and the end of October.
This latest announcement means nearly 30,000 flights will have been removed from BA's schedule between April and October this year.
The cancellations affect London Heathrow, Gatwick and City airports.
The industry has struggled with staff shortages as demand for air travel has rebounded after Covid restrictions.
"The whole aviation industry continues to face into significant challenges and we're completely focused on building resilience into our operation to give customers the certainty they deserve," BA said.
The latest cancellations come ahead of Friday's deadline, announced last month by the Department for Transport (DfT), for an amnesty to give airlines a short window to hand back, without facing the usual penalty, any airport slots in the summer season they are not confident they will be able to operate.
The intention is to reduce the chances of disruption and late-notice cancellations over the summer by making schedules more resilient.
Airport slots provide airlines with the authorisation to take off or land at a specified time on a specified day. In usual circumstances, the carriers would risk losing the slots - and taking a hit to their business - if they cancel flights.

Flybe have also cancelled several UK domestic flights due to late delivery of aircraft:

Flybe has axed three of its Belfast City Airport routes and reduced the frequency of five others during the summer period.
Flights will no longer operate to Aberdeen, Inverness and Newcastle due to "late aircraft deliveries".
The operator will also have reduced services to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Southampton.
The airline's chief executive, Dave Pflieger, said the decision has "not been taken lightly".
A planned increase in flights for the period of 28 July to 29 October has now been scrapped after the airline said two aircraft leasing companies, which were contracted to provide extra aeroplanes, were unable to fulfil their commitments until after the summer.
The airline has rented aircraft from two separate airlines - one in Greece and one in Spain - but said the extra aeroplanes were not enough to provide the enhanced schedule.

Flybe suspends three Belfast City Airport routes over summer

Flights to Aberdeen, Inverness and Newcastle will not operate from 28 July until 29 October.

www.bbc.co.uk

Flights from Birmingham to Edinburgh and Glasgow are also operating at a reduced frequency, with the Belfast to Aberdeen, Inverness and Newcastle routes being scrapped, as well as Birmingham to Aberdeen.

This surely can't bode well for Flybe, considering they only relaunched a few months ago.

 

[gabrielhj07]

announcement from British Airways that they intend to cancel 10,300 short haul flights until October.

This is good news. Much better to remove the flights from sale nice and early than to dissapoint people at the airport.

Flybe have also cancelled several UK domestic flights due to late delivery of aircraft:

Bit silly really, given they are using 'their' old aircraft leased back to them.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Just booked with BA but it looks from the schedules that Heathrow to Oslo is avoiding the waves of cancellations. Hoping they've already made many of the cancellations before I booked. Nowhere seems to say when these cancellations will be public.

So far had flights with easyJet, eurowings, Lufthansa. Long check in queues (easyJet only), some delays loading baggage onto planes (all three), long security queues(Manchester only). But certainly not anything terrible, just things taking a little longer than usual.

But it seems that cancellations are increasing not decreasing at the moment.

 

[joncombe]

I had a cancellation email for a BA flight I have booked for October so it seems the disruption is going to continue beyond summer. There is another flight a little over 2 hours earlier on the same day I could use, but I booked a late flight for a reason and don't want to have to curtail my plans. I tried to phone but they are closed after 8pm so wondering if I could be booked onto the first flight the following morning and claim for overnight hotel? Or would I be forced to accept an earlier flight or pay for a hotel out of my own pocket if I want to come back early the next morning instead?

 

[YorkshireBear]

Just booked with BA but it looks from the schedules that Heathrow to Oslo is avoiding the waves of cancellations. Hoping they've already made many of the cancellations before I booked. Nowhere seems to say when these cancellations will be public.

So far had flights with easyJet, eurowings, Lufthansa. Long check in queues (easyJet only), some delays loading baggage onto planes (all three), long security queues(Manchester only). But certainly not anything terrible, just things taking a little longer than usual.

But it seems that cancellations are increasing not decreasing at the moment.

I was wrong. During July, BA have cancelled most flights to Oslo from Heathrow. Expecting the email anytime now as this is likely a precursor for August.

 

[roversfan2001]

I had a cancellation email for a BA flight I have booked for October so it seems the disruption is going to continue beyond summer. There is another flight a little over 2 hours earlier on the same day I could use, but I booked a late flight for a reason and don't want to have to curtail my plans. I tried to phone but they are closed after 8pm so wondering if I could be booked onto the first flight the following morning and claim for overnight hotel? Or would I be forced to accept an earlier flight or pay for a hotel out of my own pocket if I want to come back early the next morning instead?

I suspect they'll let you on the morning flight, space permitting; see what it says in 'Manage My Booking'. I'm not sure whether they'd have to pay for the hotel as you've chosen to fly out the next day. You'll definitely get the right answer on FlyerTalk.

 

[joncombe]

I suspect they'll let you on the morning flight, space permitting; see what it says in 'Manage My Booking'. I'm not sure whether they'd have to pay for the hotel as you've chosen to fly out the next day. You'll definitely get the right answer on FlyerTalk.

Well the manage my booking lets me choose that or the next morning, but I don't want to choose the next morning until I know expenses are covered. BA don't answer the telephone, you just get a message that they are too busy to take your call and it cuts off (I have tried many times). They don't answer Twitter either.

I did eventually get hold of someone on the online chat who told me they wouldn't normally cover expenses if I opted to on the flight the next morning instead of the earlier on the same day in this case but that they wern't able to tell me for sure and I'd have to contact Customer Relations. I was told that Customer Relations don't speak to customers, you can only contact them by filling in the form on the website, which they take 3-4 weeks to answer! What a joke.

However the email they sent me on the cancellations says this.

What do I need to do?​ You can rebook yourself onto the next available flight, or claim a refund, by going to Manage My Booking. Please be aware that if you agree to choose a different departure point or destination to the ones on your original booking, you can't claim expenses for travel from, to or between these locations, such as car hire, parking costs or train tickets. Please don't forward on this email as it provides direct access to your booking.

So it clearly says "onto the next available flight" (not the previous one). The cancellation email also provides a link to here https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/legal/flight-cancellation-compensation as "Information on your consumer rights when your flight is cancelled".

Under "Right To Care" it says

Where a flight has been cancelled, or is subject to a long delay, passengers are entitled to refreshments and meals in a reasonable relation to their waiting time as well as means of contacting two people outside the airport. These provisions apply according to the duration of the expected delay and the distance of the flight as follows:

• Delay of two hours or more for flights of 1500 km or less
• Delay of three hours or more for all flights within the EU of more than 1500 km and all other flights between 1500km and 3500 km
• Delay of four hours or more for all other flights.

In addition, the operating carrier will provide hotel accommodation if necessary and provide transport between the airport and place of accommodation. Passengers will be advised of the arrangements for obtaining refreshments, transport and hotel accommodation, by the carrier.

The flight is under 1500KM and the change is more than 2 hours (whether I take the earlier or later flight). So I believe the last sentence should come into play because the wording on the cancellation is explicit about being booked onto the next available flight (not previous), since this is the next day they should be paying for a hotel and meals. Naturally BA see it differently, probably because they don't want to spend any money.