Hundreds of thousands of British Airways passengers will see their travel plans changed again after the airline announced it would cancel more than 10,000 flights by the end of October.
At the same time, there have been more votes from railway unions to attack operators, including LNER, which could increase transport disruption in the summer.
BA said its measure was designed to “protect holiday flights” after the chaos witnessed during Easter and mid-term breaks due to a lack of staff at airlines and airports.
It will eliminate an average of about 100 flights a day as it continues to struggle to meet its schedule amid labor shortages and the threat of strikes at its main Heathrow center.
BA said all flights affected in the last round of cancellations would be short-haul, where there are more daily departures on the city’s main routes.
It follows a similar number of preventive cancellations made in early May for the entire summer season, and adds to a relatively small number (about 650) since last week’s July schedule.
The airline said the entire aviation industry “continues to face major challenges and we are fully focused on creating resilience in our operation to give customers the certainty they deserve.”
The latest cut in schedules, which has taken almost one in seven of BA flights initially on sale, has been enabled by the government’s “amnesty of seats” announced last month.
This has allowed BA and others to reduce their operations this year without losing the right to valuable landing strips at Heathrow and other busy airports, which typically have a “use it or lose it” rule.
BA said: “The government recently decided to give space relief to the whole industry to minimize possible disruptions this summer. While taking more action is not where we wanted to be, it is what we need to do for our customers and “Our new flexibility means we can further reduce our hours and consolidate some of our quieter services in order to protect as many of our holiday flights as possible.”
He said most flights were not affected and most customers would leave as planned, but added: “We do not underestimate the impact this will have and we are doing our best to recover their travel plans. We contact you to apologize and offer booking change options for new flights or with another airline as soon as possible or issue a full refund. “
Meanwhile, hundreds of staff from more than three train companies have voted in favor of industrial action, which could increase the impact of rail strikes this summer.
Members of the TSSA union in LNER, the long-distance operator of the East Coast and the Essex c2c commuter service have voted in favor of the strike, while those in Northern have voted in favor of an action before ‘a strike. Voting results follow similar votes for strikes in CrossCountry and East Midlands on Tuesday, and Avanti last week.
The union said it would not immediately call dates for industrial action, but would consider next steps with workplace representatives at each operator. He has previously suggested that action could be scheduled to affect the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this month.
TSSA members have different roles for train companies, such as ticket office and ticket office, customer service, train control and management.
Union members on Network Rail are largely in the management ranks working as contingency personnel when union RMT signalers went on strike last month, allowing a limited number of trains to run on the main lines. A coordinated exit could completely stop services. The result of the vote on the TSSA strike on Network Rail is due to be presented on Monday.
The Aslef union, which represents the machinists, will announce the results of the voting to nine train operators on the same day, while the RMT union, which represents 40,000 railway workers from 13 train operators and Network Rail, resumes talks on Monday by resolve your dispute.
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