Experts cautioned today that British Airways’ suspension of short-haul flight sales from Heathrow Airport could persist for the remainder of the summer as the airline increased its pricing more than tenfold amid a rush for tickets.
Sales on BA’s domestic and international itineraries, as well as those via Morocco and Cairo, have been halted through August 8.
Given the “ongoing issues affecting the whole aviation industry,” the airline claimed that it was the “responsible” thing to do. It intends to resume sales on next Tuesday.
However, last night, aviation experts warned that it was “highly likely” that ticket sales for the remainder of the summer, including the August bank holiday, would have to be restricted.
According to a senior aviation insider who spoke to The Times, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
In the meantime, the price of remaining BA flights has skyrocketed; on August 27, a journey from Heathrow to Amsterdam will cost £511 as opposed to £44 in June.
In addition, Gatwick to Marrakesh on August 5 cost £575 instead of £184, London City to Berlin on August 7 cost £789 instead of £142, Heathrow to Barcelona on August 13 cost £543 instead of £236, and Heathrow to Athens on August 27 cost £691 instead of £218.
According to Paul Charles of the PC Agency, “What’s occurring is that prices are increasing owing to demand.”
The cost of available tickets is rising as a result of numerous people continuing looking into and purchasing tickets. BA is managing yield as they have in the past.
The Independent’s Simon Calder, meanwhile, speculated that the sharp price increases might be an effort to discourage customers from making reservations.
According to him, airlines have a history of raising prices to ludicrous heights in an effort to discourage bookings.
For instance, all rates were raised by almost £400 24 hours prior to the collapse of Monarch in 2019 with the hopes that no further passengers would book and enhance the severity of the issue.
This was likely done by top management and the Civil Aviation Authority.
British Airways is not in financial danger, but the airline wants to have seats available on a variety of flights in case of cancellations or, more likely, missed connections.
According to what I understand, doing so would make it difficult for travel agencies to make changes to reservations. Instead, it sets flight fares that only the gullible or desperate would afford.
When a Naples arrival is almost an hour late, as mine was last week, and connections are missed, there may still be room on other planes.
From the standpoint of the airlines, the ideal situation would be for prices to be set at levels that are high but not oppressive. Carriers like BA profit greatly from last-minute bookings.
However, given the state of UK aviation at the moment, it is more important to minimise the harm done in order to avoid incurring costly fines and landing on the wrong side of Heathrow.
Over the course of the summer, BA cancelled more than 30,000 flights, and more flights were cancelled once Heathrow implemented a daily departure passenger quota of 100,000 last month.
It means that passengers who had their initial flight cancelled are entitled to being re-booked on other services, and the action is taken to make sure there are enough seats to accommodate those who are impacted.
Those who are unable to rebook on a BA route will be entitled to a seat on a competing airline at a significant expense to the company.
It happens after Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye issued a warning that restrictions on holiday flights from European and UK airports may last into next summer.
“We’ve seen no change in airline behaviour toward ground handling,” Mr. Holland-Kaye told the Mail, “and unless something changes significantly, we’re going to be in the same situation in six months, possibly even 12 months.”
In a statement, BA said: “Given the constraints placed upon us and the ongoing issues confronting the entire aviation sector, we’ve chosen to take appropriate action and limit the available fares on some Heathrow trips to help maximise rebooking choices for existing passengers.”
Being the biggest airline at Heathrow, BA is disproportionately affected by the airport’s cap.
The industry as a whole will be impacted by BA’s move to halt sales, driving increasing costs for other airlines.
Nevertheless, it will assist in stabilising the carrier’s operations and lowering the danger of a disturbance brought on by overbooking.
After losing patience with hours of delays and “chaos,” travellers were caught on camera crawling through hatches in the luggage reclaim area at Manchester Airport, prompting BA to suspend sales of short-haul tickets.
According to a Swissport baggage handler undercover reporter working at Manchester Airport, passengers trying to get air-side to access their bags “happens all the time.”
They went on to state that it leads to “fights,” called the situation “f*****g pandemonium,” and blamed it on the fact that they “basically have no personnel.”
The Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, which was broadcast last night, also reveals how a whistle-blower claimed pilots with one low-cost airline feel under pressure to fly for greater periods of time despite being exhausted.
While a UK Border Force insider cautions that long lines at passport control will last longer than three hours if traveller numbers rise to pre-pandemic levels, given present staffing levels.
The startling disclosures follow months of chaos in which 1.7 million passengers flying out of or into the UK had their flights cancelled within 48 hours.
Dispatches on Channel 4 also found that at Heathrow, physically taxing labour that would ordinarily be handled by two or more employees was carried out by lone handlers, with the conditions during shifts beginning at 3am being characterised as “simply awful.”
A whistleblower Wizz Air pilot also spoke to the programme about how they feel pressured to fly more hours.
The pilot, who requested anonymity, stated: “There is a crew shortage and they encourage workers to work harder to avoid cancelling flights.”
We feel under pressure to assist by flying on our days off. Although you can call in sick if you’re exhausted, doing so will cost you money.
The Home Office declared today that the warning on three-hour wait times at passport check was “false,” as more than 90% of travellers only waited less than 30 minutes in July.
Border Force “works diligently to ensure it has the required level of resources to check that passengers are complying with our requirements and to maintain border security as travel continues to open,” according to a spokeswoman.
She stated that it had just hired 800 new employees.
The Daily Mail highlighted last month how Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi came under criticism for encouraging airline employees to work through exhaustion.
We are all tired, but sometimes going the additional mile is necessary, he stated at the time.
Wizz Air lost £550 million in the year ending in March, despite revenue more than doubling to £1.4 billion.
A person who is “fatigued” is “not in a fit state to fly an aeroplane,” according to Martin Chalk, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association, in a statement to Dispatches.
Nearly seven out of ten Wizz Air flights departing the UK last month, according to research for the programme, were delayed.
During the pandemic, Swissport, the baggage-handling company utilised by numerous airlines, laid off more than half of its 6,000 baggage handlers.
Ministers have directed the vetting centre to give priority to airport workers in order to help fill the shortages more quickly. This is in an effort to speed up the counterterrorism and accreditation checks on new hires.
Swissport expressed regret for its “role in the interruption some people have suffered at Manchester Airport” to the programme.
We have hired more than 4,100 personnel since January in order to reduce delays for travellers, the statement continued.
The safety and well-being of our customers and employees is always our first priority, according to Wizz Air.
It claimed to run a “industry-leading fatigue management system” that aviation regulators “frequently examined and monitored.”
The Daily Mail was informed by Wizz Air that it will “never compromise on safety” and that 400 pilots had been hired in the last nine months.
There are “no financial repercussions,” according to a statement, for pilots who report being weary.
The statement read, “The flight will be cancelled if our pilots detect weariness and substitute pilots cannot be located.” “Whenever required, we won’t hesitate to cancel flights to ensure safety.”
A Department of Transport (DfT) spokesman responded to the allegations by saying, “We’ve done everything within our power to support the aviation industry, including providing £8billion to protect jobs during the pandemic, but it’s now up to the sector itself to make passengers can get away on their well-deserved summer vacations.”
A temporary amnesty on airport slots was also implemented, according to the department, to give airlines time to make advance reservations and avoid last-minute cancellations.
The DfT official continued, “These measures are clearly effective as recent flight cancellations have returned to levels seen in 2019 as a result of the reforms that are giving passengers more confidence.”
Swissport emphasised that delays were brought on by “disruption from many sources” and not only ground handlers in a statement to the Daily Mail.
It also stated that there had been a net 415 rise in headcount at Manchester Airport this year.
The company emphasised that it did not collaborate with airlines who had encountered delays at Heathrow or Gatwick.
Manchester Airport emphasised that the undercover recording was completed around a month ago after managing director Karen Smart quit in April as a result of weeks of traveller turmoil.
According to the report, 95% of travellers cleared security during the first week of the school summer break.
Each airline is in charge of its own ground operations, including check-in and baggage, it stated.