S.R

Been seeing many threads about canceled flights and noticing them myself on my upcoming routes.
Is this something to be concerned about? I’m not a frequent BA flyer, but as someone with a few BA trips booked this summer, I’m a bit worried.
My most frequent airline for international travel is EK (fly out of JFK once a month) and I’ve never experienced similar operational issues as BA seems to be facing.

Are these cancellations on transatlantic flights normal and expected further into the summer?
I’m flying JFK-LHR a few times this summer, along with LHR-SFO and LHR-IAH. It seems that every couple of days there is at least 1 cancellation on the JFK route. And same for IAH and a little less often on SFO. A bit concerning, especially considering how full some of these cabins already are for later summer.

If I’m booked in paid F and there’s no F availability on BA/AA/OW, would they book on other airlines like LH, LX, AF etc
All my tickets were booked via AA website and I’m OWE (AA EXP)

speedbuslhr

The wave of cancellations the past few months are down to engineering - mostly TECY as the reason code.
BA currently have a shortage of engineers and spare parts which can take days or weeks to arrive taking additional planes out of service. On top of the need for more engineers many have just jumped ship to United Airlines who have just opened an engineering base at LHR with a hangar and increased pay.

Engineering simply cannot provide the amount of aircraft for the schedule BA have published. This could be a long term thing but BA could also reduce the summer flying and do these cancellations further in advance to increase the operational stability. Currently there is no end in sight to resolve this issue…

corporate-wage-slave

The reasons for the recent number of cancellations has been covered in detail elsewhere, but it's essentially a shortage of airframes and some spare parts, which has affected the 787 fleet in particular. I would say this is temporary, things like this have happened before and they get resolved without many people noticing.

For JFK, with so many services - 8 to 10 a day - it's not unusual at any time of the year to get a cancellation and on that route people can normally be accommodated on other services with AA and alternative routes also available such as PIT, WAS, BOS, PHL. If there is an on the day cancellation then it is possible to use other airlines, though BA requires staff to prioritise their own services. BA has a deal with LH Group so it's not out of the question.

As a general point the fear of cancellation in this forum is often greater than the actuality. Yesterday there was one cancellation on JFK to LON, and today none, 22 BA and AA flights did or will operate over those 2 days.

pgamse1

I was booked SJC - LHR for this evening (17/5), that was canceled at short notice yesterday evening, I was rebooked SFO - LHR for tomorrow, that flight has also been cancelled now. So from my perspective definitely a concern.

tattikat2

Bummer.

Did they cancel the 4:35pm flight, the 7:35 pm flight or both from SFO?

I had a 4:35pm 777 canceled short notice last month but was moved to the 7:35 flight (A380)

GHawley71

Long time reader, first time posting. What pushed me to finally register was the seemingly laissez-faire attitude towards these recent BA cancellations. Is it not realized these affect travel plans sometimes made months in advance? In my case I booked a trip from IAD - KRK back at the end of January and unfortunately BA216 (IAD - LHR) was cancelled on 5/13. In addition, I had also been monitoring alternative KRK flights from LHR like a hawk for weeks just in case the BA flight from IAD was delayed arriving at LHR which seemed a very real possibility. There's only one direct BA flight each day to KRK so missing the one on 5/14 and then having to wait until Monday afternoon would have cut into my already short two week holiday.

When I saw BA216 was cancelled I decided I had had enough of BA cancellations and would fly someone else later in the year so I called AA who I booked through and told them I wanted a refund. The customer service agent I spoke with happened to mention they've been processing a lot of refunds for BA flights recently.

I'm now going to take LOT from ORD - KRK in October which is a direct flight. Unfortunately with staffing issues at work over the summer I'm unable to get any time off until then.

lhrsfo

As well as cancellations, BA seem unable to get you and your luggage to your destination on time. Whether it’s late incoming aircraft or no gate available or no baggage handlers available or simply no excuse proffered, I have yet to walk out of an airport with my luggage within 2 hours of the scheduled arrival time this year. And that’s eight flights both longhaul and shorthaul.

gw76

Fair amount of GLA SH cancellations too and although multiple frequencies, outwith the shoulder flight times, they are often full… meaning little capacity. There were up to 5x Airbus narrowbodies scattered across remote parking at BAMG over past few months

Door5L

Tactical shorthaul cancellations are definitely routine but it’s concerning to see the number of longhaul cancellations at the moment going into the summer peak season, and to see a relatively new airframe (787) having so many issues. As others have posted, the 380 is also struggling with operational reliability. Has anyone got the keys to the stored 747s for the summer? BA must regret not going with the 747-8 and instead choosing an increasingly complex longhaul fleet that does not lend itself to quick aircraft swaps and crew flexibility who are trained just on the 777 and 747 for longhaul flying, as used to be the case at Heathrow. Maybe the BA timetables need to go back to the days of “aircraft type may vary” on all their timetables, which I think was shown on systems and timetables as “EQV” but am I showing my age?

corporate-wage-slave

And there is a new 787-8 route starting at the beginning of June, CVG x 4 days a week.

Today's late notice cancellations are BA7 to HND, BA285 to SFO, BA193 to DFW, BA189 to EWR; and on short haul cancellations are 1 service to AMS, CDG and ZRH.

KARFA

Haha, yes CVG came to mind. Also if we get swapped to a -9 or -10 can you imagine the Flub shenanigans which will ensue

13901

There's no more 747s. They were sold at a (nominal) price, together with the entire stock of spares etc., and alienated.

Sorry, but this paragraph doesn't hold water. Fleet complexity isn't an issue per se. What is an issue is a) manpower and b) spares. Both problems are historic, but have been amplified in their magnitude by Brexit and very short-sighted decisions taken during the pandemic. Besides, from an engineering PoV, a 747-400 and a 747-8i are completely different animals. Different engines, wings, you name it; even 77Ws and 77Es require a conversion course to learn how to maintain the different equipment found on board (e.g. engines).

Overall, before this issue gets conflated beyond measure, I just want to highlight that, at a network level, today I can see 16 cancellations over 682 flights. That's about 2% of the total programme. Not ideal, but not exactly Southwest-like for those who remember Xmas last year.

Dave_C

I would be interested to see how that BA cancellation rate compares to the EU3 (AF/KL and LH Group) and also the US3 of AA/DL/UA. The number of 2% does seem high for when there are no weather issues.

IHateLHR

That makes sense for sure, but for those with 787 flavors on our regular routes, such as for me BOS-LHR-BOS, the % is not only higher but felt more acutely. And with DL, VS, UA and B6 on the route as well as BA/AA, having to scramble to find an alternative way home on a Friday (due to a 787-related canx) doesn't enhance loyalty. And I'm pretty loyal... I point you at the separate HND thread, which has similar cause.

BearX220

A route-by-route analysis is sometimes less confidence-inspiring. The 295/294 to ORD, for example, has been cancelled at a 28% rate over the past 60 days, and until a fortnight ago that was 77X, not 78X. I think BA TATL services into AA hubs, where rebooking might be a little easier (though not as summer travel ramps LFs toward 100%), may be particularly vulnerable. I wouldn't book the 294 right now for anything.