The Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) has lodged a ‘strong protest’ with British Airways (BA) over its cancellation of flights as a result of the recent bad weather.
SPAA secretary Alisdair Tannahill said the association became increasingly concerned following the cancellation of a series of BA flights between Glasgow and Edinburgh and Heathrow from Thursday last week until yesterday.
He said the changes to the timetables left virtually no flights on the two routes, while other short-haul routes to cities such as Paris, Amsterdam and Aberdeen remained largely unaffected.
In a letter to BA head of UK and Ireland sales, Richard Tams, Tannahill wrote: “As we have indicated before, there are no alternatives available to us to get passengers to and from Scotland who have either come off or are connecting to your long-haul services.
“We would be grateful if you can impress on your operations team, who have an extremely difficult job, just how important these domestic links are to us.”
A BA spokesman said a daily skeleton service was still running on the two routes following the cancellations, while passengers were offered alternative flights with BA and BMI, as well as on flights to and from Gatwick and London City airports.
He added: “British Airways operates the most extensive domestic, short-haul and long-haul schedule of any airline operating out of Heathrow and we have to take decisions in the interests of all of our customers worldwide.
“Given the worst weather in a generation across the UK, as well as particularly bad weather in many parts of Europe, we have been forced to make some difficult decisions as to which flights to cancel as a result.
“We have focused on cities around the UK and mainland Europe, which have many frequencies per day and several alternative operators, so that customers can be rebooked if they still wish to travel or be refunded if they don’t.”
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