British Airways suspends short-haul ticket sales at Heathrow

British Airways has suspended ticket sales on short-haul flights from Heathrow until August 8 after London Airport's decision to limit capacity and fight against widespread disruption and cancellations.

The airline said the suspension of sales to domestic and European destinations was designed to allow existing customers to rebook flights flights when needed.

Airlines and airports across Britain and Europe have struggled to cope with the post-lockdown travel rebound, many have failed to recruit enough staff to handle check-ins and baggage.

Heathrow, like Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, said airlines to limit the number of tickets they sell over the summer, after capping the number of passes gers departing from the hub at 100,000 per day to limit queues, baggage delays and cancellations.

Heathrow said last week that the cap had allowed a marked improvement in punctuality and bag gage handling.

"Following Heathrow's request to limit new bookings, we have decided to take responsible measures and to limit the fares available on certain Heathrow services to maximize new booking options for existing customers, given the restrictions placed on us and the ongoing challenges faced by the entire aviation industry,” BA said. in a statement.

However, an industry expert argued that it was good news for consumers as it would allow the airline to ensure that people who had confirmed reservations would be t always able to fly on schedule.

Julia Lo Bue-Said – the chief executive of industry body Advantage Travel Partnership – told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “This is positive news for consumers. In some ways, it seems quite counter-intuitive for an airline to reduce seats at peak times, but it's absolutely about building resilience, making sure there's less disruption," and less risk for those who have booked.

The company earlier responded to Heathrow's cap on passenger numbers by announcing it would cancel 10,300 flights until October, with one million passengers affected.

While the move halts BA's access to the lucrative last-minute flight market during peak season, Lo Bue-Said argued that this was a short-term solution to meet consumer demand while minimizing disruption.

“It somehow allows them to evolve in a certain way,” said Lo Bue-Said. -type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement" class="dcr-1mfia18"/>

In response to the news on Twitter, a user asked: "Short flights- shouldn't couriers be banned anyway for environmental reasons and to reduce pressure on airports?"

Emirates last month rejected the order to Heathrow to cancel cap flights. The airline accused the airport of showing "blatant disregard for consumers" by trying to force it to "deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers".

A Heathrow spokesperson said at the It would then be "disappointing" if an airline "wanted to put profit before safe and reliable passenger travel".

Virgin Atlantic also criticized the airport's actions and claimed it was responsible for the failures that contributed to the chaos.

The airlines were accused on July 21 of "harmful practices" in their treatment of passengers affected by the disruptions.

< p class="dcr-xry7m2">The Competition and Markets Authority and the Aviation Authority civil issued a joint letter to carriers, expressing concern that "consumers could suffer significant harm if airlines do not meet their obligations".

The letter stated: "We are concerned that some airlines are not doing everything possible to avoid committing to one or more harmful practices."

This includes selling more tickets for flights "than they can reasonably expect to provide", not always "satisfying fully obligated" to offer flights on alternative airlines to passengers affected by the cancellations and not giving consumers "sufficiently clear and direct information about their rights".

  Lifestyle   Aug 2, 2022   0   82  Add to Reading List