British Airways to cut 10,300 more short-haul flights before end of October

Around one million passengers with existing bookings are estimated to be affected

British Airways has been pre-emptively cancelling flights throughout spring (Getty Images)

British Airways has cut a further 10,300 short-haul flights between August and October.

The latest cuts mean the airline will have dropped almost 30,000 flights during the summer season.

Only domestic and European departures are affected by the latest cull.

The Independent estimates that at least one million passengers are already booked on the new tranche of cancelled services. The cancellations are in addition to the 17,600 announced by the end of June.

BA has now taken more than 4.5 million seats out of the market. The latest round has been announced ahead of a Friday deadline for airlines to cancel flights this season without losing slots next summer. Around 18 per cent of the airline’s schedule has now been culled.

Most of the cancellations are expected to be at London Heathrow, though some will be made at Gatwick and London City airport.

A British Airways spokesperson said: “The whole aviation industry continues to face into significant challenges and we’re completely focussed on building resilience into our operation to give customers the certainty they deserve.

“The government recently decided to give the whole industry slot alleviation to minimise potential disruption this summer. 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.

“While most of our flights are unaffected and the majority of customers will get away as planned, we don’t underestimate the impact this will have and we’re doing everything we can to get their travel plans back on track.

“We’re in touch to apologise and offer rebooking options for new flights with us or another airline as soon as possible or issue a full refund.”

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, affected travellers can insist on being flown on the same day, even if it means BA has to pay for a seat on a rival airline.