British Airways stops selling short-haul Heathrow flights until mid-August

BRITISH Airways has extended the suspension of flight sales from London Heathrow for another week.

The UK flag carrier has stopped the sale of the short-haul tickets due to the current cap on flights at Heathrow Airport.

The airport is currently limiting their daily flights to 100,000, down from 104,000, until at least October.

In response, British Airways initially stopped sales last weekend, but has extended this to August 8, and again to August 15, it was announced today.

A British Airways spokesperson previously said: “We took pre-emptive action to reduce our schedule this summer to give customers certainty about their travel plans and to build more resilience into our operation given the ongoing challenges facing the entire aviation industry.

“When Heathrow introduced its passenger cap, we took a small number of additional flights from our schedule and to continue to comply with the cap, we’ve been taking responsible action by limiting sales or all the available fares on some of our Heathrow services to ensure more seats are available to rebook customers.

“We’ll continue to manage bookings to be within the Heathrow imposed cap so we can get our customers away as planned this summer.”

Not only does this mean Brits will struggle to book last-minute flights, but those currently on sale will soar in price due to demand, and those who need to book a flight if they miss a connection will face huge problems.

Head for Points editor Rob Burgess warned: “Since the Heathrow capacity cap will exist until at least 11th September – and we believe it will be later – it seems likely that BA has to keep caps in place until the end of the school holidays, given the upcoming Bank Holiday at the end of August

“Anyone who needs to travel on BA before 11th September (but after 15th August when tickets are currently still available) should book now before the rug is pulled out from under them.”

And travel expert Paul Charles has warned that the suspension could go into September as well.

He told the Telegraph: “I think we’ll see this continue until early September.

“When you combine the 30,000 flights cancelled by BA already this year with the freeze on new short-haul sales, then it will have a significant impact on the previous perception that you could travel easily at short notice.”

Heathrow initially said airlines must stop flogging summer tickets with a view to cut 4,000 passenger departures.

The airport previously even ordered airlines to consider booting holidaymakers off flights to bring an end to travel chaos engulfing the UK.

A source told the Telegraph: “In effect, passengers face being bumped off flights that do take off.”

It’s not just BA – Lufthansa also reduced their flight sales last month too.

Thousands of flights and holidays have been cancelled amid travel hell in Britain, while droves of Brits have reported how airports are losing their luggage as a wave of chaos grips the nation’s terminals.

And strike action is threatening to disrupt holiday plans further.

Ryanair crew in Spain are threatening walkouts until January while BA pilots are threatening to strike this summer.