- British Airways is canceling 10,300 short-haul flights to and from London airports this summer.
- The airline is cutting its summer schedule by about 13% after being offered a landing slot amnesty.
- As well as flight delays and cancellations, passengers face long lines at airports and lost luggage.
British Airways is canceling more than 10,000 flights this summer amid mounting travel chaos.
Airlines have been delaying and canceling flights due to staffing shortages, surging passenger demand, and technical issues.
Passengers have also faced lengthy delays at airports, with some saying they missed their flights because queues for check-in and security were so long, while others have waited days to be reunited with their luggage.
British Airways said it was consolidating some services, cutting 10,300 short-haul flights to or from London airports between early August and late October. About 1 million customers who have already booked tickets will be affected, The Times reported.
Along with previously announced cancelations, this means the airline has eliminated close to 30,000 flights between April and October, the BBC reported. BA is canceling about 13% of its summer schedule overall.
"The whole aviation industry continues to face into significant challenges and we're completely focused on building resilience into our operation to give customers the certainty they deserve," British Airways told Insider.
Affected customers will be offered another flight with BA or a different airline, or a full refund.
After announcing the cancellations on Wednesday, BA tweeted that it was "experiencing high call volumes due to current disruption."
In late June, the UK Government introduced a one-off "amnesty" allowing airlines to hand back airport landing slots they are not confident they can be operate this summer. Airlines are normally required to use the highly valuable slots a certain number of times to keep them.
The government said the slot amnesty would help prevent last-minute flight cancellations due to staffing shortages and let airlines "deliver a realistic summer schedule that minimizes disruption at the airports."
The new policy, part of the UK Government's 22-point plan to tackle airline and airport chaos this summer, appears to be behind British Airways' latest cancelations.
"The Government recently decided to give the whole industry slot alleviation to minimise potential disruption this summer," British Airways told Insider.
"While taking further action is not where we wanted to be, it's the right thing to do for our customers and our 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 as possible."
BA's long-haul flights will not be affected by the latest cancelations.
Other airlines cutting their summer schedules include Lufthansa and Delta.
On June 29, Heathrow, the UK's largest airport, asked airlines to cut flights set for the next morning due to a lack of capacity.