British Airways will cut 10,300 more flights over the next four months, the last of thousands of cancellations that have caused a widespread disruption to aviation this summer.
The cuts in short-haul flights, from now until the end of October, take advantage of new government regulations that allow airlines to return take-off and landing strips to busy airports without losing them permanently.
The decision came just a day after the airline said it would cut 1,500 flights from its schedules, and just a few weeks after cutting 10,000 more flights while trying to bolster its signaling operations.
In total, BA has now cut 13 percent of its original summer schedule, about 30,000 flights.
“While taking more action is not where we wanted to be, it is what needs to be done for our customers and our colleagues,” BA said on Wednesday.
“While most of our flights are unaffected and most customers will escape as planned, we do not underestimate the impact this will have and we are doing our best to recoup their travel plans.”
The news came after the carrier had hired a new chief operating officer in a management reshuffle.
René de Groot will join the airline from Dutch-flagged company KLM in October, according to an internal email sent to BA staff by CEO Sean Doyle.
De Groot, who held the same position at KLM after training as a pilot, will be responsible for restarting BA signaling operations after a summer of testing with flight cancellations and staff shortages. .
KLM has faced its own operational problems this summer, exacerbated by a staffing crisis at its Amsterdam center.
“René is very familiar with the issues we have been dealing with. As KLM’s chief operating officer, he led the airline’s operations team through the Covid-19 crisis, ending the calendar in 2020, followed by a bumpy recovery characterized by changing conditions continuously, health regulations and travel restrictions, ”Doyle wrote in the email.
“I am confident that René will help us rebuild our airline and become a better BA,” he added.
BA problems are part of industry-wide personnel problems at airports between ground operators and air traffic controllers, which has led to cancellations and delays.
In addition, the airline is facing the possibility of a strike of about half of its own Heathrow check-in staff by the end of this summer, although the Unite and GMB unions have not yet set a date for action.
BA’s new hiring comes after Doyle introduced a number of senior management changes in the spring, which included splitting the role of chief operating officer in two.
Incumbent Jason Mahoney took over as technical director, while de Groot will take over day-to-day operations.
Other airlines that have reorganized management include easyJet. Peter Bellew, director of operations for the airline, resigned this week after operational failures at the airline.
BA lost about 10,000 employees in 2020 as the company withdrew money during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic and has struggled to re-hire quickly enough, although it began hiring at the end of the year. past.