PASSENGERS have been warned about a huge increase in the number of flight cancellations this summer - with more disruption expected. The number of trips grounded by airlines has almost doubled already and strikes and Air Traffic Control (ATC) staffing problems could be set to make things worse. Figures released by aviation analytics company Cirium shows instances of flights being cancelled in Europe rose 46 per cent in June, when compared with the previous month.
That equalled a total of 8,145 cancelled flights altogether, across all European airports . This increase is a significant one at the start of the summer holidays and will no doubt have travellers worried about their trips abroad, with most schools yet to break up. The news comes amid similarly poor stats for British Airways , which is under pressure to make improvements due to a higher-than-average cancellations rate across the past year.
The British flag carrier has grounded 4,033 flights from UK airports over the last 12 months, again according to Cirium - a figure the Financial Times says is almost twice as high as easyJet 's for the same period. The paper claims that BA is "under pressure to improve its operations" with the summer travel rush starting to begin this month. However, it's been accused of cutting costs by aviation experts, who claim it is no longer the reliable airline it once was.
Chris Tarry, an aviation industry consultant told the FT: "BA is still suffering from years of cost cutting, “In my v.
