British Airways (BA) has announced an extension of its ban on short-haul European and domestic ticket sales. The ban was initially supposed to last until the 8th of August but will eventually be in place until the 15th of August.   

Heathrow Airport has recently imposed 100,000 passengers per day cap in the hope of facilitating the functioning of the airport operations. 

London’s main hub has been observing staff shortages, which led to chaos, including numerous delays, luggage handling challenges, and long queues. 

Although the controversial cap is to be in place until mid-September, it’s expected to get extended during Autumn. 

It is in this context that BA decided to stop selling tickets for UK domestic and European short-haul flights from Heathrow. As Simple Flying underlines, not only did BA not cancel these flights, but available seats on the return leg to Heathrow remain on sale. 

Given the fact that the majority of flights were nearly full before BA’s new regulation, only à few seats on each plane were made unavailable. 

The point on which both Heathrow and BA agree is the reduction of the number of passengers passing through the airport will allow smoothing out operations and improve reliability. 

The main goal of the recent regulations is to cut the number of severe delays, long waits at security lanes or at luggage check-in points and last-minute cancellations.

Image: Unsplash

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen