Major airlines including TUI, British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair have offered advice and forecasts on the impact of cuts to flight times at Gatwick Airport.
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Simon Calder reveals your rights if your flight is canceled
Flights from most major airlines are likely to be grounded this summer due to a major reduction in Gatwick airport schedules.
The travel hub is set to cut the number of daily flights to help with staffing issues after a number of last-minute cancellations caused havoc for holidaymakers.
The airport, London’s second busiest, will limit daily take-offs and landings to 825 in July and 850 in August after the decision was made following a review of its operations.
On the busiest days, airlines will be asked to cancel up to 50 flights, forcing thousands of already booked passengers to find alternative departures.
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Airport Coordination Ltd, the body that allocates take-off and landing ‘slots’ at Gatwick and other hubs, will stipulate the number of cancellations each airline must make.
Although the exact figures remain unclear, The Mirror has contacted the main airlines that use Gatwick to ask how badly they expect to be affected.
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Ryanair
Ireland’s low-cost airline has been very vocal about the Gatwick situation, calling on airport bosses to look elsewhere when deciding which airline’s schedule to cut.
“We have no intention of canceling any flights out of Gatwick,” they said.
“Ryanair operated a full schedule of flights with zero cancellations (due to staff shortages) to/from the UK in May and plans to operate all scheduled flights to/from UK airports in June subject to solely from the risk of ATC or airport processing delays.
“Gatwick should look to airlines already making mass cancellations across the UK for these cuts.”
TUI
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The German travel agency is very optimistic about the impact the Gatwick cancellations could have.
A TUI spokesperson said it planned to operate all scheduled flights from Gatwick over the next three months.
“Our TUI Airways flights have been running well from Gatwick and therefore plan to operate all flights as planned this summer,” they said.
“We will continue to work closely with all elements of the aviation ecosystem to ensure our customers can get away on the vacation they’ve been looking forward to.”
EasyJet
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easyJet is set to bear the brunt of cancellations from Gatwick, having already blocked hundreds of its flights so far this year.
At least 50 easyJet departures and arrivals failed to leave the tarmac at west London airport on Thursday, meaning around 10,000 passengers did not travel as scheduled.
The low-cost airline did not give a figure for the expected number of canceled flights when asked.
An easyJet spokesperson said: “We are aware of the capacity cap announced by Gatwick and are now reviewing the details to assess what this means for easyJet’s operation at Gatwick.
“We recognize the need for Gatwick to do this, as airports across Europe have visibility into all airlines and are well placed to decide what capacity is realistic in the current difficult operating environment, so that all airlines airlines can provide reliable services to their customers.
“Given the high frequencies of our services to and from Gatwick, we expect to be able to re-accommodate the majority of customers whose flights are affected by the cap.”
British Airways
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Ba has already reduced its schedule by 10% until October and has suffered numerous cancellations and delays.
As of 9.30am this morning, he had canceled four flights from Gatwick, to countries including Portugal and France.
A BA spokesperson told the Mirror today: ‘Like other airlines, we are working closely with Gatwick Airport to ensure our customers can continue to travel with certainty.
The company is working on its flight times to change them to reflect the reduction required by the airport and will offer all affected customers the option of rebooking with BA or another airline.
If they don’t rebook, they can get a full refund.
Wizz Air
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The Hungarian airline did not respond to questions from the Mirror about the Gatwick cancellations.
However, Wizz Air does a lot of routes from the Travel Center and will likely suffer significantly from groundings.
According The Independent Simon Calder’s travel correspondent, Portuguese and Spanish flight routes are likely to be the most affected by the cuts.
He says: “For easyJet, Wizz Air and British Airways’ EuroFlyer, the most obvious flights will be high frequency connections such as London to the main airports on the Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol and Algarve: Alicante, Malaga and Faro respectively.
“At weekends, easyJet has six or seven flights a day, and cutting one or two from the schedules is probably doable.”
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