BRITS face a holiday nightmare as airlines announce a fresh wave of cancellations – and Heathrow is worst hit.
Airlines have until Friday to tell Heathrow officials which flights are no longer operating.
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British Airways is expected to cancel most flights. Troubles at the airline were caused this week by an amnesty on take-off and landing times at Britain’s busiest airport, the Telegraph reports.
BA planned to carry 1.8 million passengers on more than 9,000 flights out of Heathrow in July alone.
Vacationers have already been plagued by months of cancellations, delays and missing bags as airlines and airports struggle to keep up with customer demand due to staff shortages.
On Friday, passengers were trapped in long lines after EasyJet workers in Spain went on strike and further industrial action was planned across the continent.
The Heathrow amnesty is expected to trigger a wave of cancellations in the summer.
BA, the largest airline at Heathrow, is having to reallocate 80 to 85 per cent of its passengers whose flights have been canceled in recent days.
An airline spokesman said the Amnesty slots “help us give our customers the peace of mind they deserve.”
They claim the move will make it easier to “early consolidate some of our quieter daily flights to multi-frequency destinations and protect more of our leisure flights.”
A Heathrow spokesman said: “We encourage airlines to seize this opportunity to reconsider their summer schedules without penalty and to inform passengers of any changes as early as possible.”
EasyJet cabin crew today began a nine-day strike at bases in Barcelona, Malaga and Palma.
Airline workers, who are affiliated with Spain’s USO union, announced last month they were leaving after easyJet confirmed 11,000 flights would be canceled from its summer plans.
The union is seeking a 40 percent increase in base pay for low-paid cabin crew.
Heathrow had to cancel more flights on Thursday, affecting thousands of travelers.
London Airport has told 30 airlines that they have to cancel flights during the morning peak. The cancellations reportedly affected up to 5,000 passengers, who were briefed on the changes at short notice.
Angry Britons took to social media to complain, calling it “slaughter” and “utter chaos”.
One man wrote: “Absolute shambles, complete chaos and only found out upon check-in with no prior notification.”
Another wrote: “Total chaos at Heathrow this morning. BA flights canceled and zero customer service!”
A third said: “Over two hours since landing and still not out of @HeathrowAirport, shambles.”
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