BA cancels more 10,300 more flights this summer

British Airways has cancelled a further 10,300 flights that were scheduled to depart from the start of August until the end of the summer schedule in October.

The airline has already cancelled more than 1,000 flights due to take off in July. It cut its summer flying programme by 10 per cent in May. There were 13 per cent of cancellations today.

It is believed that the airline decided to take advantage of the government's slots amnesty which closes on Friday.

Airlines are not confident that they can operate for the rest of the summer due to the amnesty, which allows them to hand back without penalty take-off and landing spaces.

A BA spokesman said the whole aviation industry continues to face significant challenges and we are focused on building resilience to give customers the certainty they deserve.

The government decided to give the whole industry slot relief in order to minimize potential disruption this summer. While taking further action is not where we wanted to be, it is the right thing to do for our customers and colleagues. This new flexibility means that we can further reduce our schedule and consolidate some of our quieter services so that we can protect as many of our holiday flights.

We don't underestimate the impact this will have and we're doing everything we can to get back to normal with our flights being unaffected and the majority of customers will get away as planned. We are in touch with apologise and we offer rebooking options for new flights with us or another airline as soon as possible, or issue a full refund. Robert Courts, the aviation minister, has called for airlines to take advantage of the window, stressing that it is important that passengers have as much notice of cancellations as possible.

A senior aviation source said we are in for a summer of carnage. Some airlines are cancelling some flights, but it is just a sticking plaster.

It's going to be very messy when the schools break up in a couple of weeks. This is a global issue and that is the only solace ministers can take. We are seeing problems in Europe, the US and Oz. Passengers flying from Britain's biggest airport face further misery this summer after refuelling workers voted to strike.

Members of the Unite union working for AFS Aviation, an aviation fuel services company, at Heathrow, will walk out in an initial 72 hour strike from 5 am on July 21 at the start of the school holidays in England.

AFS provides refueling for more than 70 airlines at Heathrow, including Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, United Airlines, KLM, SAS, Air France, Emirates, Delta, Japan Airlines and Singapore Airlines. BA will not be affected by the strikes as it has a fuelling arrangement with an alternative supplier.

The strike will cause delays at the UK's biggest airport with long delays predicted as aircraft will be made to wait for refuelling, according to the union bosses.