London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Flight cancellation plan aims to ease summer chaos

Flight cancellation plan aims to ease summer chaos

Airlines are expected to announce a series of cancellations to UK summer flights this week aimed at minimising disruption in the peak holiday season.

A government "amnesty" to the rules on airport slots is in place until Friday, allowing airlines to change schedules without facing a potential penalty.

Ministers told carriers to review their plans after chaos in May, blamed on a shortage of airline and airport staff.

British Airways said the move would help provide "certainty" to customers.

The UK's biggest airline, whose services from Heathrow Airport are likely to bear the brunt of this week's cancellations, said the measures would make it "easier to consolidate some of our quieter daily flights to multi-frequency destinations well in advance, and to protect more of our holiday flights".

Airport slots provide airlines with the authorisation to take off or land at a specified time on a specified day. In usual circumstances, the carriers risk losing the slots - and taking a hit to their business - if they cancel flights.

The Department for Transport (DfT) amnesty will give airlines a short window to hand back the slots in the summer season they are not confident they will be able to operate.

A DfT spokesperson said: "This will help passengers find alternative arrangements ahead of time, rather than face the kind of last-minute cancellations seen over the Easter and half-term holidays."

That earlier disruption prompted the government and the aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, to write to airlines telling them to ensure their summer timetables were "deliverable... based on the resources you and your contractors expect to have available".

Heathrow said the slot amnesty would "enable airlines to make early choices to consolidate their schedules, boosting the resilience of summer operations and giving passengers the confidence they deserve ahead of their journeys".

It added: "We encourage airlines to take this opportunity to reconsider their summer schedules without penalty and inform passengers as early as possible of any changes."

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of trade body Airlines UK, said it followed other measures taken by the sector.

"We will continue to work with ministers and the whole aviation ecosystem to ensure the summer peak runs as smoothly as possible for our passengers," he said.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said the move would also allow rival airlines to step in and fly the cancelled routes.

He said: "Carriers must surrender their slots to other airlines if they are unable to fulfil them. This will help reduce cancellations and end the unsustainable practice of airlines flying near-empty planes to retain slots."


'Summer of stress'


Thousands of aviation jobs were lost during the Covid pandemic and many businesses have struggled to recruit enough new staff in time to deal with resurgent demand for travel following the easing of rules.

Gatwick said it would be reducing the number of flights during summer because of staff shortages even before the airport slots amnesty was first set out by the government on 21 June,

Heathrow to date had not announced similar plans although last week it ordered 30 flights to be cancelled, saying it was expecting more passenger numbers than it could cope with.

It comes as Manchester Airport warned it would not be able to return to its pre-pandemic standards until the autumn.

Aviation industry consultant Paul Charles predicted thousands of flight cancellations would be announced this week, meaning less last-minute disruption over the summer.

But he told BBC News passengers were facing a "summer of stress".

Staffing levels remained 20-30% lower than they should be, he said, with a rise in Covid cases seeing airline and ground workers calling in sick in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, passengers face the prospect of disruption from strikes involving airline staff over summer.

Hundreds of British Airways workers at Heathrow Airport - mostly check-in staff - have voted to go on strike in July over pay, and unions are currently consulting engineers and call centre staff at Gatwick, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle on taking action.

Unions have also called for EasyJet cabin crew based in Spain to strike for nine days this month as part of a dispute over pay.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×