SUMMER MELTDOWN
Brits holiday nightmare as airlines to ‘announce new wave of cancellations’ – and Heathrow is worst affected
BRITS are facing a holiday nightmare as airlines announce a new wave of cancellations - and Heathrow is the worst affected.
Airlines have until this Friday to tell Heathrow officials which flights will no longer be running.
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British Airways is expected to cancel the most flights. Problems at the airline have been caused by an amnesty on take-off and landing slots at Britain's busiest airport this week, the reports.
BA planned to carry 1.8 million passengers across more than 9,000 flights from Heathrow during July alone.
Holidaymakers have already been slammed by months of cancellations, delays and missing baggage as airlines and airports struggle to keep up with customer demand among staff shortages.
On Friday, passengers were trapped in long queues after EasyJet workers went on strike in Spain, with more industrial action planned across the continent.
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The amnesty at Heathrow is expected to trigger a wave of cancellations over the summer.
BA, which is the biggest airline at Heathrow, will have to reallocate 80 to 85 per cent of its passengers whose flights have been cancelled in recent days.
A spokesperson for the airline said the amnesty slots "help us to provide the certainty our customers deserve".
They claim the move makes it easier to "consolidate some of our quieter daily flights to multi-frequency destinations well in advance, and to protect more of our holiday flights".
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A Heathrow spokesman said: “We encourage airlines to take this opportunity to reconsider their summer schedules without penalty and inform passengers as early as possible of any changes.”
EasyJet cabin crew began a nine-day strike across bases in Barcelona, Malaga, and Palma today.
Airline staff who belong to the Spanish USO union announced they'd walk out last month after easyJet confirmed 11,000 flights would be axed from its summer schedules.
The union is looking for a 40 per cent pay rise in low-paid cabin staff’s basic wage.
Heathrow was also forced to cancel more flights on Thursday affecting thousands of travellers.
The London airport told 30 airlines they had to axe flights during the morning peak. The cancellations are understood to have affected as many as 5,000 passengers who were told at short notice of the changes.
Fuming Brits complained on social media calling it "carnage" and "total chaos".
One man wrote: "Absolute shambles, complete chaos and only found out at check in with no prior notification."
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Another wrote: "Total chaos at Heathrow this morning. BA flights cancelled and zero customer service!"
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A third said: "Over two hours since landing and still not out of @HeathrowAirport, shambles."
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