BA urges families to delay their holidays

Help fix the travel chaos by not flying, says airline

BRITISH Airways is asking travellers to consider postponing their summer holidays in an attempt to avoid travel chaos.

The flagship carrier yesterday contacted thousands of passengers flying on or before July 25 to say they would waive any rebooking fees if travellers postpone their trip to later this year or next year.

BA has cancelled six more outbound flights every day for the next few weeks after Heathrow imposed a 100,000 daily cap on departing passengers. The affected routes are Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Luxembourg and Amsterdam.

A furious row broke out between airlines and Britain’s biggest airport yesterday, with Emirates refusing to cut flights from its schedule, branding the daily limit ‘entirely unreasonable and unacceptable’.

Despite BA’s request for holidaymakers to consider postponing their trips, the carrier was still selling seats from Heathrow on its website yesterday to destinations such as Athens, New York and Gran Canaria in the days leading up to July 25.

Paul Charles, of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: ‘The big summer getaway, July 22, is only days away, and BA effectively saying “we don’t want you to carry on with your holiday” is unbelievable. It’s causing a lot of emotional anxiety and distress before people’s big trips and putting them in a very difficult position: do they risk carrying on with their flight and having it cancelled, or change it to a different date?’

Next weekend – July 22, 23 and 24 – is expected to be among the busiest of the year for aviation firms as the school summer holidays begin.

BA said: ‘We know some customers may want to review their travel plans in light of the current travel challenges and have introduced a policy that will allow customers to easily change travel dates so that they have additional flexibility.’