CharlotteC

Please can anybody tell me does BA ever cancel flights if they are not very busy? I was looking at Expertflyer (amazing what one does during a lunch break) and it appears that the flight I am on to Mumbai seems very empty in all classes - one other in first, several in business and almost totally empty in WT+ and WT. Many thanks

UKtravelbear

Are you looking at the seat map because they are very unreliable on workinf out if a flight is busy are not. Not everyone selects a seat in advance even if they don't have to pay for it (such as in F). Even those with status don't always select seats in advance.

And even if a flight isn't busy on the outbound it could be on the return. Also cargo is very important. And there are other considerations such as meeting the 80% use ir lose the slot rule.

fruitcage

BA often adjust schedules as demand changes. Routes and frequencies are adjusted up and down. But it tends to be over weeks, months or seasons at a time. Not aware of them just cancelling random individual flights if they aren’t full enough.

corporate-wage-slave

Depending on how far off the flight is, the seat map can be misleading. I would say most people in WT won't pay for seats, and whatever you see in WTP you can double. And that WTP seating doesn't reveal all those on cheap tickets without status, which will require some of WT to be rolled into WTP. If you are within 2 days or so of departure you get a better feel for this.

But no, BA doesn't cancel flights for low demand. I've been on services where I was one of 3 passengers (so outnumbered by the crew) and where the return was also expected to have few passengers. The nearest that BA comes to this is that if BA needs to take out (e.g.) 10% of departures from LHR due to weather / ATC issues, they will do their best to avoid cancelling a flight which is full to the gunnels.

A P Yu

It would be unusual to cancel a Mumbai due to low loads. It can happen, but normally on flights with more frequency where pax can be re-accommodated on other services without BA having to pay compensation.

But as others have said. Expertflyer is unlikely to give an indication of loads with any accuracy other than - "It isnt full"

Rubecula

As well as looking at an outbound you need to look as well at the inbound. Outbound might be lightly loaded but inbound rammed.

allturnleft

Flybe used to be notorious in doing this ; or so rumour had it but I doubt it happens with big international airlines like BA

mikeyfly

BA has in the past consolidated routes to free up an aircraft (think Dreamliner issues) for instance LAX where it already had two other services - and SJC where pax could be rerouted onto SFO, but in general no, we don't see cancelling - in fact there's threads where passengers are onboard with only a handful of other passengers. You never know how busy the opposing leg is, or how much valuable cargo is in the belly....

irishguy28

Have you also checked the loads on the return flight that this aircraft is supposed to operate? You would need that flight to also be "lightly loaded" for such a thing to make sense.

And as others have noted - don't make the mistake of thinking that the seatmap indicates how busy a flight is. Not everybody gets or takes/buys a seat assignment as soon as they buy a ticket...the seatmap will always lag (way) behind the actual number of seats sold, as the majority will only select a seat once check-in opens, in many cases only upon checking in at the airport just ahead of departure....

Globaliser

IIRC, you're not flying until late March / early April? That's an eternity away for guessing what the final loads might be for the flight. Remember that most business travel is booked in the last three weeks before travel, and that's the profitable traffic that BA will not be keen to cancel.

So at present, you might as well be reading tea leaves - leaving aside the fact that looking at a seat map is always like reading tea leaves. Really, it's not worth the energy.

Cymro

Quite apart from the accuracy of the seat maps and fare classes available:

1. Lots of travel will not yet be finalised and loads are generaly quite high.
2. BA has to use its slots at Heathrow or risk losing them.
3. If it did cancel, it'd have to compensate and/or reaccommodate all the passengers on both legs.
4. It would have to do the same for its cargo.

So, other than the fairly extreme situation of Hong Kong recently, and with the caveat above that if BA has to cancel a flight, it's only rational to cancel those that are quietest, like any airline it'll prefer to send out a virtually empty plane rather than mess around with an individual flight.

anniegray

I’ve certainly had domestics cancelled from ABZ because they were practically empty, but I doubt they would cancel international routes

Mwenenzi

When is your flight? Tomorrow or in a few weeks/months?
BA policy of charging for seat allocation (for many pax) means many people will not preselect seat.

USA_flyer

I thought the point of a scheduled airline was that it ran, you know, to a schedule.

orbitmic

They cancel flights when they feel demand isn’t there weeks/months in advance and have done so more aggressively in the past two years mostly on the European network. So if they have 4 or 5 flights a day to a destination they may decide to have only 3 on some given day.

the other thing they can do is if there are compulsory cancellations for example due to weather, they will try to prioritise emptier flights.

however they do not cancel a flight a week or two before departure because it is not full enough.