easyJet, BA: Simon Calder shares ‘crucial’ advice for Britons with cancelled flights

Simon Calder warns to ‘not do anything precipitous'

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British Airways and easyJet have both axed flights this summer. What should British tourists do while they wait to find out if their flight is cancelled?

Simon said that despite the cancellations, British tourists should wait before doing anything drastic.

He said: “Most flights will be going ahead and you should find out hopefully soon.

“Don’t do anything precipitous, don’t change, don’t book another flight, don’t cancel until you know a bit more.

“Of course, if you’ve got a good travel agent, they will sort it out for you.”

He said: “What they’re (British Airways) saying is, ‘we don’t want to have anymore last minute cancellations, we’d rather give people certainty’.

“So what they are doing, adding to the nearly 20,000 flights they’ve already cancelled for this summer, suddenly last night they said there’s another 10,300 flights.

“Crucially these are all short haul and domestic flights. Everyone wants to know if their flight is affected.

“I’m trying to find out from British Airways when they will be telling people about whether their flight has been cancelled.

“The airline must book you on another flight on the same day either on its own services or on any airline that will get you there.”

Britons flying with BA should find out soon if their flight is cancelled as BA must tell the Government about cancellations by tomorrow.

Simon said: “British Airways by tomorrow must tell the Government if it is going to cancel flights this summer but it wants to hang on to the slots next year.

“To translate that, the permission to arrive and take off from Heathrow Airport is about the most precious asset in the whole world of aviation.

“BA doesn’t want to lose any of its slots, that’s partly why it promised such a vast program which it can’t deliver.”

He added: “easyJet has got a really big problem. easyJet is in all sorts of trouble at Gatwick.”

easyJet could announce more cancellations soon as it struggles to cope with staff shortages and a huge flight program.

Simon said: “I hate to be the voice of travel doom but of course we’re also waiting to hear what strike action might be taken by 700 British Airways staff at Heathrow.”

However, he added: “Don’t panic everybody, it will probably be alright.”

British Airways workers based at Heathrow Airport have voted for strike action this summer over a pay dispute.

Strike dates have yet to be announced but it is thought workers may choose the busiest weekend of summer travel.

That means the weekend of July 22 and 23 could be chaos as Britons struggle to get away during school holidays.

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