British Airways has written to travel agents to say it will cancel “a small number” of additional flights following Heathrow’s cap on summer passenger numbers.
On Tuesday (July 12), Heathrow set a daily cap on departing passenger numbers for the remainder of the summer – meaning airlines have to cancel additional flights.
It is limiting passengers to 100,000 a day – a reduction of 4,000 a day on current numbers – to tackle ongoing disruption at the airport.
In a statement, BA said: “This is incredibly disappointing news for our customers, coming at a time when we’ve already taken responsible action to reduce our summer schedule to slim our programme further, utilising slot alleviation to minimise disruption, provide certainty for travellers and help airports manage their resource.
“As a result of Heathrow’s request, we will now need to take a small number of additional flights out of our schedule and we will be contacting customers to apologise, advise them of their customer rights and offer options including rebooking or refund.
“We also know that some customers may want to review their travel plans in light of the current travel challenges and have introduced a policy that will allow customers to easily change travel dates so that they have additional flexibility.”
However, Dubai-based carrier Emirates has rejected Heathrow’s demands to cancel flights, saying it is impossible to rearrange travel for passengers on alternative services.
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