Thousands to be denied refunds as flights axed

BRITAIN’S biggest airport grounded dozens of flights yesterday over fears it could not safely deal with passengers due to staff shortages.

Heathrow bosses asked carriers to slash services for the third time in recent weeks, throwing the travel plans of 10,000 holidaymakers into disarray.

And it warned it may have to repeat the move after it reviews changes airlines made to their schedules last week.

A total of 61 flights were cancelled yesterday – British Airways, which has already axed 18 per cent of its summer schedule, cancelled the most.

To add insult to injury, passengers left stranded in temperatures as high as 31.2C (88.1F) were not entitled to cash compensation as the cause of cancellation

‘There is no excuse’

was beyond the airlines’ control – leaving them to rely on their travel insurance policies.

They could usually hope to be re-booked on to alternative flights on the same day. But Virgin Atlantic said Heathrow had asked airlines not to offer sameday alternatives in a bid to limit passenger numbers. The move came on Sunday night, giving barely any notice to travellers.

A Heathrow spokesman said they were expecting ‘higher passenger numbers in Terminals 3 and 5 than the airport currently has capacity to serve, and so to maintain a safe operation we asked airlines to remove a combined total of 61 flights’.

Jo Rhodes, of consumer body Which? Travel, said: ‘The airport knew how many passengers were due to fly today, so there is no excuse for it to be ordering onthe-day flight cancellations.’