British Airways cuts European flights by 18% due to coronavirus

British Airways has filed a substantial number of short-haul cancellations.  This will see the European flying programme cut by 18%.

Because of the requirement to pay EC261 compensation if flights are cancelled less than 14 days in advance, the bulk of these cancellations are for late March.

There are also cancellations for dates before 22nd March but these are not as extreme as the numbers shown below.

For the week of 22nd March, this is what has been filed:

London City:

Flights cut from 418 to 361 (down 13.6%)

London Gatwick (short haul):

Flights cut from 347 to 280 (down 19.3%)

London Heathrow (short haul):

Flights cut from 1,615 to 1,320 (down 18%)

These changes have been made WITHOUT any agreement on slot dispensations.  It is possibly not a coincidence that the cancellation figure is very close to the 20% line at which British Airways would be at risk of losing its take-off and landing slots.

That said, the cancellation numbers above do NOT include the cancellations to Northern Italy which were announced after these changes had been filed.

The biggest losers include, for 22nd March onwards:

Bordeaux (6/9 weekly cancelled)

Genoa (all cancelled)

Rome (4/7 cancelled from Gatwick)

Billund (3/7 cancelled)

Zagreb (4/8 cancelled)

You can see the full breakdown by route on Routes Online here.

Realisatically, we can expect substantial additional cancellations if a slot waiver is given.

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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

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