British Airways Cuts 200 Flights for Summer

Fearing that its current woes will continue into the summer, British Airways has been forced to cancel more than 200 flights over a four-month span, according to iNews in the United Kingdom.

England’s flagship carrier has been struggling for months due to short staffing at the airline and COVID restrictions in other destinations. It recently announced that staffing problems were so bad that it stopped loading baggage on short-haul flights and would send luggage on to the destination days later.

The new cancellations include flights to and from Miami, Hong Kong and Tokyo, among other cities, affecting more than 10,000 passengers. Miami’s routes have been reduced from twice daily to just once a day from June 4 to September 7.

“Thousands of people (already) had their Easter holiday travel plans thrown into chaos and this latest wave of BA cancellations is a worrying sign that the summer season could be affected,” Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, told iNews. “The Government must work with airlines and airports to ensure they have the resources and capacity to handle increased passenger numbers, as there can be no excuse for a repeat of these failings.”

Chaos could be a buzzword all over, not just with British Airways.

This is expected to be one of the biggest summer travel seasons in recent memory, fueled by pent-up demand from the last two years of COVID, the loosening of travel restrictions and, now, the apparent end of the federal transportation mask mandate. It could also be one of the most tumultuous.