BA axes 8% of LHR flights, Ryanair responds by adding 1M additional winter seats

British Airways (BA) has announced plans to adjust its end-of-summer and winter schedule after London Heathrow Airport extended the daily cap on passenger numbers until October 29, 2022, and asked airlines to sell fewer flights.

“Following Heathrow’s decision to extend its passenger cap we’re making adjustments to our short-haul schedule for the next two months,” the airline said in a statement provided to AeroTime.

Under Heathrow’s extended restrictions the airline will have to cancel on average a further 12 short-haul roundtrips from London Heathrow each day until October 29, 2022, BA told AeroTime. In total, the airline is taking out 629 round trips for this period.

“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 cancellations up to the end of October,” BA said in the statement.

The airline also expects to cut up to 5,000 roundtrips from its winter short-haul schedule until the end of March next year.