8,000 flights: this is approximately the number of frequencies that British Airways decided to cancel between March and October.. This reduction in the number of flights is linked to the fact that the airline is understaffed, having not sufficiently anticipated the upturn in traffic since the start of the year.
With the Covid pandemic, British Airways had to shed some 10,000 employees at a time when it was losing £20 million a day (€23 million).
But traffic has been rising since the start of the year. According to the figures provided by IAG, BA's holding company, the British airline has recorded an increase of 740.3% in passenger numbers in the first quarter of 2022. That's 5.3 million passengers instead of 0.63 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Staff shortages
And clearly, the carrier was unable to anticipate this recovery, despite the fact that its capacity since the end of 2021 has risen from 30% to 80% pre-Covid figures. The carrier has launched a recruitment campaign for 6,000 people. But integrating these new staff will take time. The employee shortages are particularly acute among pilots and baggage handlers. As with the rest of the airline industry, British Airways is also facing record absenteeism due to asymptomatic cases of Covid.
All that remained was to cancel flights to ensure the stability of the offer. and allow passengers to book without unpleasant surprises, according to the airline. But there are still a number of shortcomings judging by the comments made by Internet users on the carrier's social networks. In fact, Twitter is full of messages from travellers complaining about flights cancelled at the last minute, the impossibility of checking in online, or the inability to get a response by telephone, social networks or email. BA's Twitter teams have no choice but to apologise.
As for passengers, it's best to check several times that everything seems to be going according to plan before departure.
