Popular airline warns of ‘more flight cancellations’ this summer

A POPULAR airline has warned passengers that there will likely be more flight cancellations this summer.

Already this year strikes and bad weather have caused flights to be grounded, but it seems there could be more problems to follow.

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United Airlines in America has said that they will have to reduce their schedule due to a combination of issues that saw hundreds of thousands of passengers affected last month.

A string of thunderstorms initially caused airlines to ground flights, but flight traffic controller staffing shortages meant it was much harder for them rectify the situation, according to their CEO Scott Kirby.

Over a five-day period, tens of thousands of flights were grounded as airlines struggled to cope with the amount of traffic and the weather problems.

Kirby told his staff that he was frustrated by the way the situation was handled and said that typically, such situations aren’t as much of a problem.

In an email to United workers on July 1, printed by Best Life, Kirby said more cancellations were likely this year if things weren’t able to change.

He wrote: “Airlines, including United, simply aren’t designed to have their largest hub have its capacity severely limited for four straight days and still operate successfully.

“We are going to have to further change/reduce our schedule to give ourselves even more spare gates and buffer—especially during thunderstorm season.”

Closer to home, strikes could see flights to European holiday hotspots grounded right at the start of the summer holidays.

EasyJet cabin crew in Portugal have rejected a new pay offer and scheduled strikes for later this month.

Portuguese cabin crew who have rejected the latest pay offer will stage strikes between July 21 – 25.

EasyJet told Sun Online Travel that their crew pay is already 124 per cent of the national average in the sector and said SNPVAC’s most are demanding an increase of 44 per cent in overall pay.

They described it as “unworkable without jeopardising the future of our Portuguese bases”.

A spokesperson said: “We are extremely disappointed that SNPVAC is planning further strike action despite our willingness to continue a constructive dialogue. 

“Our crew pay is competitive and significantly above the Portuguese national average salary and our recent offer is fair.

“We will do all possible to mitigate the impact on our customers including making changes to the flight schedule in advance to allow customers to rebook for free or take a refund before they travel, if their flight is unfortunately cancelled.

“We advise customers travelling to and from Portugal on the strike days to check the status of their flights on Flight Tracker on our mobile app or website.”

Meanwhile passengers make this big mistake when their plane is delayed or cancelled.

And here’s how to get refunds if your flight is grounded.

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