BA to halt ticket sales for long-haul flights

Reducing short-haul departures may not be enough to comply with Heathrow’s passenger cap

British Airways is poised to pause sales of long-haul flights to destinations such as New York as the airline faces disruption at Heathrow. The carrier has already suspended ticket sales for short-haul flights from the UK’S biggest airport for at least a week in response to a cap on passenger numbers. But a spokesman said BA cannot rule out disruption to long-haul routes. It could mean travellers trying to book last-minute trips to Singapore or New York, for example, may not get seats.

BRITISH AIRWAYS is poised to pause sales of long-haul flights to destinations such as New York as it battles disruption at Heathrow.

The airline suspended ticket sales for short-haul flights from the country’s biggest airport for at least a week in response to a cap on daily passenger numbers, and a spokesman said it could not rule out disruption to long-haul routes while the cap is in place.

The move could push prices higher and mean travellers trying to book lastminute journeys to destinations such as New York, Singapore or Dubai may be unable to find seats.

Heathrow announced last month that until Sept 11, a maximum of 100,000 people per day would be allowed to fly.

It followed a similar move by Gatwick to limit flights following chaotic scenes at Britain’s busiest airports this summer, with large numbers of passengers subjected to hours-long queues, missing or late-arriving baggage and lastminute cancellations.

Alex Macheras, an independent aviation analyst, said it was “realistic” to expect that BA would also now have to reduce sales of long-haul flights.

He said: “With the current restrictions, caps and pressures that are being put on airlines, there is no way they could guarantee that not a single longhaul flight will be affected.

“BA’S global route network is incredibly vast and, while short-haul flights, with multiple frequencies, will always take the hit first they also operate longhaul flights with multiple frequencies. So there is room there as well to trim down the schedule.

“The stand-out example would be the route to New York, but also other flights to North America and South East Asia.

“There are also routes, to Doha for example, where they can shift passengers on to flights with partner airlines such as Qatar Airways.”

However, he said that in most cases passengers would have to book longhaul flights at a different time, rather than being forced to travel on a different day.

The BA spokesman said ticket sale suspensions were being dealt with on a case-by-case basis, with no blanket restrictions planned.

For example, if ticket sales for a morning flight to New York were paused, travellers may still be able to book an afternoon flight.

The move by BA to halt sales of all short-haul flights from Heathrow is unprecedented. More than half the flights that leave the airport are operated by the carrier, which cancelled tens of thousands of flights due to staff shortages.

BA says it was a “responsible” course of action, however it was likely to cost the airline a huge amount in lost sales.

Many of its flights have empty seats but the halting of sales will ensure there is spare capacity for passengers to be rebooked if there is further disruption this summer or delays cause travellers to miss connections.

Heathrow has blamed the need for a passenger cap on “critical functions in the airport which are still significantly under-resourced”.

It has complained, in particular, of a lack of check-in staff, bag handlers and other logistics personnel.