British Airways axes another 10,300 summer flights

Between now and the end of October, British Airways will be cutting 10,300 short-haul flights.

The news came as it emerged the carrier has recruited René de Groot from KLM as chief operating officer, who will join on October 1 to help tackle the problems caused by the continuing cancellation

Almost 50 return flights a day have been affected by the latest cancellation.

Long-haul flights won't be affected by these cancellation.

The number of flights that have been canceled this summer is more than the number of flights on the schedule.

At the beginning of this week, a BA spokesman said the carrier had completed its latest round of flight cancellation by removing 11% of planned capacity.

Passengers are informed in advance of flights being canceled and replaced with alternative flights within 24 hours of their original departure.

With the start of the school holidays in England and Wales later this month, the unions are about to announce strike action by 700 check-in staff at the airport, which will affect the carrier and its customers.

On the weekends of July 22 and 29 there will be strikes at airports.

The whole aviation industry faces significant challenges and we are focused on building resilience into our operation to give customers the certainty they deserve.

The government decided to give the entire industry slot to make up for potential disruptions this summer.

It is the right thing to do for our customers and our colleagues if we take further action.

We can further reduce our schedule and consolidate some of our quieter services so that we can protect as many of our holiday flights as possible.

Most of our flights are unaffected and the majority of customers will get away as planned, but we don't underestimate the impact this will have and we're doing everything we can to get their travel plans back on track

We are in touch to apologize and offer rebooking options for new flights with us or another airline as soon as possible.

René de Groot will join the senior management committee team as our COO. As we navigate an extremely challenging period for our industry, we are focused on three priorities; our customers, supporting the biggest recruitment drive in our history and increasing our operational resilience to deliver the best possible experience for our customers.