British Airways has canceled a number of long-haul flights ahead of a 16-day strike by cabin crew.
The Sun reports that cabin crew and staff on over 60 flights from London’s Heathrow airport are set to walk out from July 1 to 16 over a long-running pay dispute, and that British Airways is canceling some flights ahead of time.
According to an analysis in The Independent, 12 flights have been cancelled on the Heathrow-Doha route in the first six days of the strike, as well as three out of the first five daily round-trips in July to Abuja, Nigeria, and this weekend’s departure and return to Muscat. Passengers on the flights to Doha will instead by accommodated on flights operated by Qatar Airways, which owns part of British Airways’ parent company, IAG.
“We will operate a full schedule at Gatwick and London City airports as well as the vast majority of our Heathrow schedule,” British Airways told City A.M. in a statement. “We will merge a very small number of Heathrow services, and all affected customers are being contacted in advance and will be rebooked to alternative flights.”
The strike follows a catastrophic IT outage at British Airways in late May that left nearly 75,000 passengers stranded, which has since been blamed on human error. Some analysts have predicted that that incident could cost the airline almost £100m in compensation.
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