British Airways boss says he will have to cut flights over the next few weeks to avoid ANOTHER REMOVAL –

The British Airways chief said the airline would have to cancel flights in the coming weeks to prevent another crash after thousands of passengers were stranded on board or waiting hours to rejoin their luggage.

CEO Sean Doyle admits in an internal staff message that passengers and staff are “tired” from recent issues, including IT issues and staff shortages.

BA said flights are expected to be canceled in the coming weeks, over the Easter holidays and through the end of May.

Last weekend, nearly 200 BA flights were disrupted, with passengers queuing for over an hour to deliver their bags and forcing others to go home without their bags.

Passengers were also affected by BA’s chaos in February as more than 500 flights were canceled or delayed after the airline suffered its worst cyber crash in years.

It comes after the airline warned people to continue wearing masks on flights if they were traveling to any of its 50 destinations.

The British Airways chief said the airline would have to cancel flights in the coming weeks to prevent another crash after thousands of passengers were stranded on board or had to wait hours to rejoin with luggage.

A BA spokesperson said the airline’s schedules at Heathrow and Gatwick will be cut “in the coming weeks”, giving customers the option to book alternative flights or get a refund.

The issue came at its worst for BA as bookings hit an all-time high since the start of the pandemic, after the UK and most European countries abandoned Covid traveler tests for fully-vaccinated vacationers.

Over the weekend, Heathrow Airport passengers claimed “not enough staff to explain what was happening” and that many of the counters at Baggage check-in at Terminal 5 appeared “unmanned”.

The Airport Operators Association (AOA) has released a report today stating that only 10 percent of aviation jobs lost during the pandemic have been restored due to the huge drop in passenger numbers, and many airports remain understaffed.

The report revealed that UK airports are experiencing an even worse period in 2021 than in 2020.

According to the report, the number of passengers decreased by 12.7% in 2021 compared to 2020 and by 78.3% compared to 2019. By comparison, there were 75.2% fewer passengers in 2020 than in 2019.

As a result, UK airports recorded losses of over £10 billion last year.

AOA CEO Karen Dee told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Tuesday that British airports are suffering more severe losses than their European counterparts due to “harder restrictions”, including quarantine measures and testing rules.

“UK aviation is something we are very good at and optimistic about and we have seen the UK government move very quickly to lift the remaining restrictions.

“However, I think our report shows we are very successful in the UK and it will be a very competitive process to bring back these really important routes that support UK businesses and our ability to export, travel the world and connect globally.

The more we can do to bring it back, to build the paths that really matter, the better.”

Responding to reports last weekend that Manchester airport was struggling to staff after the pandemic, Ms Dee added: “There is clearly a challenge for airports. We weren’t getting staff as quickly as we wanted.

“There is clearly demand and in some places it is returning faster than we can get to work.

“So we need to recruit staff to replace the people we have sadly lost during the pandemic, and this creates some challenges when we get high demand.

“Most airports are currently recruiting as quickly as possible and we hope to be able to offer great passenger service again in the future.”

Ms Dee said airport owners are investing despite the losses, but the challenge remains “to scale up very quickly” and “replace staff” as passenger numbers return to pre-pandemic levels.

In a sign of increasing demand for air travel, Gatwick Airport has announced the reopening of its southern terminal, which has been idle since 15 June 2020, to reduce costs during the pandemic to meet the strong demand expected for this summer.

The number of flights, which was about 300 per day, increased to 570, equivalent to the night opening of a medium-sized airport.

A spokesperson for British Airways said: “Aviation is one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic and airlines and airports are facing the same challenges in rebuilding their operations and managing the ongoing impact of Covid. Today we opened an entirely new branch in Gatwick as we expand our program at Heathrow.

“Our experience over the past few weeks has shown that we need to build flexibility in our business to manage staff illnesses and leave our remaining open positions to them to deliver consistent customer service, rather than leaving them to the last minute in the process.” Go. Therefore, while the majority of our flights continue to operate as planned, as a precaution, we have slightly reduced our schedule between today and the end of May on our way back to work.

“We have apologized to customers affected by this and, to minimize the inconvenience, we have rebooked flights earlier or later where possible, on the day they were originally scheduled for travel. We are also giving them the option to book an alternative flight or request a full refund.