BRITISH AIRWAYS TOPS LIST OF CANCELLATIONS

BRITISH Airways has cancelled more flights than any other airline amid this year’s Easter travel chaos, new data can reveal.

The flag carrier cancelled 365 departures in the week to last Thursday, according to figures from aviation data firm Cirium.

Travel misery engulfed Britain’s airports as families jetted off for Easter. Airlines blamed staff shortages and sickness.

In the week to last Sunday, there were a total of 681 cancellations of flights departing from and arriving into the UK. That was a quarter of all flights pulled since the beginning of the year.

BA said it had had to ‘slightly reduce’ its schedule as it continued to rebuild its operation after two years of disruption caused by the pandemic. Only easyJet, which cited ‘unusually high levels of Covid sickness’, was close to matching BA’s tally of cancellations, as it pulled 309 flights.

There was further dismay yesterday when BA cancelled around a further 75 flights and easyJet around another 55, affecting 15,000 passengers.

RAIL firms will refuse to pay passengers compensation for Easter weekend chaos, caused by engineering projects, by classing the delays as ‘planned’ timetable changes rather than ‘unplanned’ – despite receiving a £313 million handout during the pandemic when a 78 per cent drop in passengers hit ticket sales.