BA to cut more than 10,000 flights from winter schedule

British Airways is to cut more than 10,000 flights from its winter schedule, in one of the clearest signs yet that airline bosses expect staff shortages and disruption that have plagued the industry to last into next year.

It is the latest blow to the aviation industry, which cut thousands of jobs during the pandemic and is now struggling to rehire quickly enough to meet resurgent demand as passengers return.

The world’s leading airlines have also faced the twin headwinds of a worsening economic outlook and rising fuel costs that will need to be passed on to travellers through higher ticket prices.

BA’s cuts to short-haul journeys amount to 8 per cent of its flight schedules between October and March, and come after the airline was forced to slash its summer flying plans to shore up its flagging operations. The airline has also axed hundreds of long-haul flights.

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s chief executive, forecasts it will take 12 to 18 months for aviation to fully recover capacity, while Qatar Airways boss Akbar Al Baker has warned that the sector faces a “couple of years” of supply chain problems. These range from staff shortages to delays in aircraft deliveries from manufacturers and a lack of spare parts.

By cancelling flights in advance, executives at BA hope to avoid the chaos and disruption of the early summer, when staff shortages led to a wave of last-minute cancellations by airlines and overcrowded airports.

Since then, the situation has significantly improved, with cancellation rates falling to historically normal levels at the beginning of August after airlines including BA cut back their schedules, and busy airports imposed unprecedented caps on passenger numbers.

BA has also cut 629 more flights from its summer schedule over the next two months, in response to Heathrow airport’s decision to extend its cap on passenger numbers to the end of October.

The airport imposed a limit of 100,000 departing passengers per day to manage operational disruption during the summer, extending it last week to cover the busy October half-term school holidays.

“While the vast majority of our customers will travel as planned and we’re protecting key holiday destinations over half-term, we will need to make some further changes up to the end of October,” BA said in a statement.

The airline said it would cut flights on routes with multiple daily services to minimise disruption to passengers.

BA is the profit engine of its Spanish parent company International Airlines Group, which owns a stable of airlines including Aer Lingus and Iberia.

The company last month forecast a return to profit this year, despite the problems at BA, but conceded the operational challenges in the UK had been “acute”.

The Spanish carrier’s shares dipped 1 per cent on Monday, with the stock down more than 30 per cent this year.

Analysts said that cutting flights did not automatically mean airlines would earn less revenue, as they would be able to charge more for the remaining tickets.

Separately on Monday, shares in Wizz Air fell 10 per cent after the low-cost airline said chief financial officer Jourik Hooghe had decided to leave the carrier to “pursue opportunities outside of the company”.

He will be replaced by Ian Malin, an executive at US aerospace company Unical Aviation.