British Airways suspends ticket sales on short-haul flights from/to London Heathrow

British Airways, which is struggling to keep up with the resumption of traffic and has already reduced its flight schedule due to staff shortages, has suspended ticket sales until at least 16 August for its short-haul flights to London’s Heathrow airport.

This includes giving more options to customers already holding a ticket who find themselves forced to change their reservation, the company said.

British Airways had already been operating a reduced flight programme for several months and had also announced in early July that it would cancel 10,300 additional flights by the end of October, bringing the reduction in its services to 13% during the summer season.

Labour problems also disrupt London’s Heathrow airport, which limited for two months from mid-July the number of departing passengers to 100,000 per day, or 4,000 less than predicted.

IAG, the parent company of British Airways, returned to profit in the second quarter for the first time since the abysmal losses of the Covid-19 pandemic, driven by the recovery in demand. But if the group’s Spanish companies, Iberia and Vueling, pulled the group up, IAG was held back by British Airways, which had cut some 10,000 jobs during the pandemic and is now struggling to recruit fast enough.