ritish airways announced their plans to cancel another 10,300 short-haul flights until the end of October.
It will cause more chaos for holidaymakers this summer after sunbathers have had weeks of travel woes at UK airports with flight cancellations, long queues and delays.
British Airways long-haul flights remain unaffected by the latest cull.
The company said: “The entire aviation industry continues to face significant challenges and we are fully focused on building resilience into our operation to give customers the assurance they deserve.
“The government recently decided to provide the entire sector with lock lighting to minimize potential disruption this summer. While taking further action is not where we wanted to be, it is the right thing to do for our customers and our colleagues.
“This new flexibility means we can further trim our schedule and consolidate some of our quieter services, so we can protect as much of our holiday flights as possible.
“While most of our flights remain unaffected and the majority of customers get away as planned, we are not underestimating the impact this will have and are doing everything we can to get their travel plans back on track. We’ve been in touch to apologize and to offer rebooking options for new flights with us or another airline or to issue a full refund as soon as possible.”
The airline is struggling with staff shortages after the pandemic, while trying to keep up with the increasing demand for flights abroad.
The latest bad news follows British Airways cancels nearly 1,000 flights due to departure in July†
The airline said in a statement that it has “unfortunately” become necessary to further reduce its operations by canceling 785 flights of flights. Heathrow and 186 flights from Gatwick.
It said: “Earlier this year, we took preventive measures to shorten our summer schedule to give customers the best possible notice of any changes to their travel plans.
“As the entire aviation industry is entering the most challenging period in its history, it has unfortunately become necessary to make some further reductions.
“We are in contact with customers to apologize and offer to rebook them or issue a full refund.”
Airlines have until Friday to take advantage of a government scheme that allows them to cancel summer flights without losing future rights to valuable airport take-off and landing slots.
However, British Airways has hired a new operations chief as flight cancellations continue.
Rene de Groot, who currently heads operations at Dutch airline KLM, will join British Airways as Chief Operating Officer (COO) on October 1.
He joined KLM in 1990 as a pilot and continues to fly for the airline.