British Airways has canceled another 1,500 flights, most scheduled for July.
The wave of cancellations in recent weeks will affect tens of thousands of people who hope to fly this summer from Britain’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
The airline has struggled with staffing shortages during a recovery in air travel demand.
British Airways had previously canceled 10% of scheduled flights between April and October but said more cancellations were “unfortunately” needed.
A spokesman for the company, the UK’s largest airline, said: “Earlier this year we took precautionary measures to shorten our summer schedule in order to give customers as much notice as possible of any changes to their travel plans.”
“As the entire aviation industry continues to experience the most difficult period in its history, it is unfortunate that some additional cancellations have become necessary,” he added.
The airline said it had contacted customers “to apologize and offer to rebook to another date or refund the cost of the booking.”
British Airways is expected to announce more cancellations over the summer ahead of the deadline.
The cancellations come as hundreds of British Airways check-in staff at Heathrow decide which strike dates could further impact peak travel times during the summer school holidays.
During the Covid pandemic, many jobs have been lost in the aviation industry and airlines and airports have found it difficult to hire enough staff on time to cope with the growing demand for travel.
Source: BBC, UK.