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ARCHIVED - European airlines cancel almost 16,000 August flights as a result of strikes and staff shortages
Despite strike action only 1% of flights to and from Spain were axed last month
The threat of summer airport chaos has been hanging over all of Europe for weeks now and finally strikes, renewed demand for travel following the pandemic and chronic staff shortages have created the perfect storm and some 15,788 flights have been cancelled for August.
This means that around 2% of all scheduled trips have been axed next month.
According to a report by Cirium, the worst affected carrier in Europe is Turkish Airlines, which has cancelled 4,408 flights, primarily as a result of the war in Ukraine. It is followed by British Airways, which has luckily avoided strike action itself at Heathrow Airport, with 3,600 cancellations, easyJet with 2,045 and Germany’s Lufthansa, with 1,888 axed journeys.
Interestingly, although its cabin crew are currently striking across Spain, Ryanair is not among the list of airlines causing the most disruption. The same goes for Vueling, Iberia and Air Europe, although all four carriers are generally the most active in Spain.
This data seems to confirm Ryanair’s claim earlier this month that despite the extensive industrial action, fewer than 1% of their flights would be affected; however, regardless of this, Spain is still the fourth country with the most cancellations for July in a ranking led by Germany.
The United Kingdom follows, having cancelled 1,060 flights last month, which represents 3.20% of its total air traffic. Next in line was Italy, with 637 axed flights (2.30%) followed by Spain, with just 423 cancelled trips, 1.08%.
The report pointed out that the “impact is not so worrying” in Spain at the moment.
“In general, across Europe, airlines are finding alternative flights in many cases, so the number of people having to cancel plans is probably quite low,” the analysis added.
The disruption in the UK is important to note, as is how different airport are choosing to handle the situation: Heathrow, for instance, has limited its capacity to 100,000 passengers per day until September 11 and has asked airlines not to sell more summer tickets to avoid delays, queues or last-minute cancellations.
Image: Freepik
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