British Airways fares soar as 2.8 million seats cancelled this summer

Exclusive: Airline grounds at least 17,600 flights over peak season – with Nice, Dublin, Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Milan hardest hit

Departing soon? British Airways Airbus A320 at Milan Linate airport (Simon Calder)

Summer holidaymakers face far higher fares and fewer travel options as the unprecedented scale of British Airways’ summer cancellations becomes apparent.

By the end of June, BA had cancelled 17,600 flights for the summer season through to October – taking 2.8 million seats out of the market. One in nine of planned departures have so far been cut. Most passengers are being given several weeks of advance notice.

The Independent understands that “rolling” cancellations are continuing, which could mean the total reaches 18,750 by the end of the week – representing three million fewer seats.

Friday 8 July is the deadline by which airlines can cancel summer flights without needing to hand back unused “slots”. British Airways holds the majority of permits to land at, and take off from, London Heathrow airport; normally a “use them or lose them” rule applies.

Even though other airlines could technically step in to pick up the slots for the summer, it is highly unlikely that passenger carriers would launch new flights: an airline with resources available would need to market thousands of seats at almost no notice, knowing that from early September fares will slump.

Instead, fares are expected to continue to soar as availability drops.

At present, British Airways has no seats on sale from any London airport to Alicante on Spain’s Costa Blanca after a late departure from Gatwick on Friday 22 July – price £555 – until the following Tuesday.

The Independent has calculated the most frequently cancelled destinations from London Heathrow over the coming 10 days. The table of grounded outbound and inbound flights between today and 15 July reads:

• Nice 72
• Dublin 58
• Amsterdam 54
• Edinburgh 52
• Milan (Linate and Malpensa) 52
• Geneva 44

The scale of cancellations to these popular destinations is extraordinary. To Nice, an average of 1,150 seats per day have been taken out of the system. On each of two dates, 10 and 13 July, 10 flights are grounded.

Fares for remaining available seats are extremely high: one seat on one flight from Heathrow to Nice remains for Thursday 7 July, price £1,181.

Paul Charles, former communications director for Virgin Atlantic and chief executive of The PC Agency, said: “These are pretty significant short-haul cuts at the biggest UK airports, as BA strives to offer quality over quantity during a challenging summer. But more cuts are certain as we’ve yet to see how schedules will be affected in August.”

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, anyone whose flight is cancelled is entitled to be rebooked on the same day if a seat is available, even if it requires the airline that grounds the original departure to pay for a ticket on a rival carrier.

Numerous British Airways passengers have told The Independent that BA has declined to rebook them on easyJet or Ryanair flights on the original day of travel.

But a British Airways spokesperson said of the cancellations: “We’re in touch with customers to apologise and offer to rebook them on us or on alternative carriers.

“As always they have the option to take a full refund as well.”

BA is also cancelling flights at Gatwick airport, where a new lower-cost subsidiary is operating for the first time. Also at Gatwick, easyJet is making dozens of cancellations each day.

The chief operating officer of Britain’s biggest budget airline, Peter Bellew, stepped down this week.