Flights and schools chaos
Hundreds of services axed... now Easter holidays face threat
THE travel plans of tens of thousands of holidaymakers have been thrown into doubt after British Airways, EasyJet and Ryanair cancelled hundreds of flights due to coronavirus.
In a dramatic development, BA yesterday axed hundreds of short-haul flights to destinations across Europe, including Italy, France, Germany and Ireland, from March 16 to 31.
The airline also scrapped 12 longhaul flights from Heathrow to New York, its busiest and most profitable route, along with dozens of services to China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul.
In all, the airline has cancelled about 3 per cent of its flights until the end of this month.
Bosses at BA’s parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), are in crisis talks over the outbreak, which has led to plummeting demand for international travel as passengers stay at home for fear of contracting the virus, or being stranded abroad and forced into quarantine. Many airlines have recorded pitifully low passenger numbers and delays caused by passenger no-shows.
Among the worst-hit carriers is EasyJet, which has cancelled 500 flights to 13 airports in Italy over the second half of March – affecting one in ten flights to the country.
The airline, whose share price has dropped by a third this week, has rolled out emergency measures to deal with reduced ticket sales, including a staff pay freeze.
Yesterday Ryanair also announced it would reduce the number of flight to and from Italy, from airports across Europe, by up to 25 per cent from March 17 to April 9.
A spokesman wouldn’t confirm which Ryanair routes had been cancelled, but said passengers would be contacted at least 14 days in advance. Until now, the vast majority of cancelled flights across all airlines had been due to depart to the worst-hit countries, such as mainland China and, in recent days, cities in northern Italy.
But the latest announcement of sweeping cancellations to locations across Europe – and even the US – threatens to ruin the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people.
Although most airlines have cancelled flights up until March 31, there is no guarantee that it won’t be extended into April, which could spell chaos for families with planned Easter getaways.
The sheer number of cancellations has forced BA to waive the fee it usually imposes on customers who wish to change the date of their flight. However, this applies only to new bookings made between March 3 and 16, and if the new flight is more expensive, passengers will have to pay the difference.
BA has also contacted customers on cancelled flights and is offering them the option of rebooking with other airlines, a full refund, or a seat on a BA flight at a later date.
Consumer champion Which? called on airlines to urgently update families in the run-up to Easter.
A spokesman said: ‘BA and Ryanair must ensure they are keeping passengers informed and quickly rerouting them to their destinations on the next available flight, with other carriers if necessary.
‘Given the circumstances, airlines should also consider offering flexibility to customers who don’t want to travel, such as allowing refunds and waiving flight change fees for both existing and future bookings.’
Industry insiders fear a global pandemic will devastate the aviation and travel industries.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said: ‘Our focus at this time is on minimising any risk to our people and our passengers. While we are heavily booked over the next two weeks, there has been a notable drop in forward bookings towards the end of March, into early April.
‘It makes sense to selectively prune our schedule to and from those airports where travel has been most affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.’
A spokesman for BA said: ‘To match reduced demand due to the continuing coronavirus issue, we are merging a number of flights between March 16 and March 28.’
EasyJet said: ‘We can confirm that we have taken the decision to cancel a number of flights mainly to and from Italy following a slowing in demand. The cancellations are for some flights between March 13 and March 31, most of which have multiple daily frequencies.’
MAJoR airlines have seen more than £15bn wiped off their value in just six days as coronavirus clobbers the travel industry.
Efforts by central banks to reassure investors’ frayed nerves helped prop up the FtSE 100 yesterday.
But it was not enough to prevent another rout on airline stocks, as shares in British Airways owner IAG plunged another 8.2pc. It means 30pc – some £3.8bn – has been wiped off the aviation giant’s value in just six days of trading.
Easyjet was also among the FtSE fallers, and like IAG is now worth 30pc less than when the markets opened last Monday.
Dart, the owner of Jet 2, fell 9pc yesterday, meaning the company has lost 41pc of its value in just over a week.
As BA and Ryanair cancelled hundreds more flights, one analyst described airline stocks as ‘in the doldrums’, while another warned they could thwart any recovery in the stock market.
on another turbulent day for the travel industry, the Bank of England attempted to calm investors reeling after the worst week on the stock markets since the financial crisis.
Echoing statements from other central banks, including the US Federal Reserve, it said it was working to ‘ensure all necessary steps are taken to protect financial and monetary stability’.
the statement appeared to provide some consolation to investors as the FtSE 100 edged up 1.1pc or 74 points to 6654.89.
Having warned last week that bookings will be hit by the coronavirus outbreak, BA announced it is cancelling another 204 flights between March 17 and 28.
this includes flights from London Heathrow and Gatwick to new York’s JFK airport and much of Europe, including France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Austria.
Ryanair also announced it is cancelling up to a quarter of its flights to and from Italy, which has been badly affected by the
Covid-19 outbreak. It said there had been a ‘significant step up in passenger no shows’. the budget airline said there had been a ‘notable drop in bookings’ but that it was too early to tell what impact the deadly disease would have on its earnings.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, warned airlines and travel companies could hold back a wider stock market recovery. He said: ‘For this rebound to stick you really need to see a rebound in travel and leisure.’