British Airways will make changes to its 2022 summer operations to destinations in the former Yugoslavia as it scrambles to hire enough staff to cope with the rebound in air travel. The airline is cutting around 10% of its flights up until the 2022/2023 winter season in late October, following its decision to dismiss almost 10.000 employees when it faced travel restrictions during the pandemic. The carrier’s operations between London Heathrow and Zagreb will sustain the most changes in the region. While the number of frequencies during May and June will vary on a week-by-week basis, with an average of eight rotations per week, services in July will be reduced to four per week from the initially planned eleven weekly services.
British Airways will restore its seasonal operations to Ljubljana in two weeks’ time, on May 24, with five weekly flights as planned. However, starting June 3, the airline will deploy a Finnair Airbus A321 aircraft on the majority of its services to the Slovenian capital. Due to its staff shortage, British Airways is leasing four A321s from its Oneworld alliance partner this summer, which includes Finnish crew. The Finnair A321s will also be utilised on flights from London Heathrow to Pula, Split and Zagreb on select dates up until at least July. Services to Dubrovnik and Pristina will continue operating with the carrier’s own equipment.
British Airways has so far cancelled 8.000 round trips, mostly on short haul sectors, with more expected past July. The airline plans to hire 6.000 new staff members to cope with demand, however, the process is expected to take some time. Other airlines, particularly from the United Kingdom and the United States have faced similar issues. easyJet plans to remove seats on some of its planes this summer, so that it can operate flights with fewer cabin crew. By taking out the back row of seating on its A319 fleet, easyJet said it will be able to fly with three cabin crew instead of four. That would limit numbers on board to a maximum 150 passengers. easyJet said it was an effective way of operating the fleet while "building additional resilience and flexibility" into the airline's operations.
Avoid BA at all costs. They are an absolute mess at the moment.
ReplyDeleteAgree. And it's not just about the flight cancellations. They also have a lack of ground staff. There is a good chance your luggage won't be offloaded from the plane.
Delete+1
DeleteThis is crazy.
DeleteAirline employees do not offload luggage. Airport employees do that.
DeleteBA has in-house ground handling at LHR. And there is no airport-owned ground handling companies at LHR.
DeleteTypical pozdrav, writes first thinks later (if at all) . Ispeci pa reci. :)
DeleteGround handling may or may not include luggage loading and offloading. If that's the case with BA, I admit I was wrong. No person in this World knows everything. However, in 99 percent of the cases, luggage is handed by airport staff, or companies outsourced by the airport, but as British are so diferrent about so many things it is very much possible. However, insulting me not to think at all, for making mistake in the case which is exception to the rule, says much more about one insulting me, than about me.
DeleteWhy shouldn't you be insulted for a change! You are always speaking against and insulting OU!
DeleteAs an ex employee at LHR, I can confirm that BA ramp does baggage handling indeed. Actually it's not unique to BA, but still quite common for the legacy carriers to have inhouse, subsidiary (e.g. Dnata for EK) and joint venture ground handling companies (e.g. TGS for TK). I know for the European airlines such as KL, IB, SK have inhouse ground handling at their bases. In Asia, even LCCs have inhouse ground handling such as Air Asia, Jet Star Japan. In Europe some major airport have own ground handling such as Fraport, MUC and VIE. In case of ZAG, I believe MZLZ Ground Handling was sold to Turkish Havas.
DeleteAs an airport authority employee in Canada it is quite the opposite, airport authorities in all major airports in Canada do not hire their own staff, this is left to ground handling companies to make contracts with the to airlines themselves, for ex. BA in YYZ hires Swissport for below the wing services and has their own staff for above the wing. Air Canada on the other hand has their own staff for all handling. Airportauhtority only issues ground handling licences to the ground handlong companies and leaves the airlines to decided who they contract for any services required.
DeleteHow many weekly flights will they have to Pristina this summer?
ReplyDeleteTwo weekly as usual
DeleteThe Finnair A321s will be a welcome change to the ones operated by BA.
ReplyDeleteThese are flying to Zagreb at the moment and they are great.
DeleteThe Finnair A321s have better width and pitch than BA aircraft.
DeleteBy an inch...
DeleteHuge 2,5cm mean a lot for tall ppl
DeleteBA's presence in ex-Yu is poor.
ReplyDeleteThey have some problem with ex-yu.
DeleteIgnoring the biggest airport in the former country shows how clueless they are here.
I never seen an airline be more cautious in this region than BA. Seriously two weekly flights to "leisure destination" Pristina??
Delete^ and those last just two months.
DeleteThey failed in TGD.
DeleteThe slots at LHR are so valuable and they have such a huge choice of potential destinations where they can use them that we should consider ourselves lucky for getting even those flights.
DeleteBA actually do very well in TIA
DeleteOf course they do, they carry a lot of transfers to the US.
Delete@9.10
DeleteBA wanted to fly to Tivat instead of Podgorica. I remember they even publicly said in 2018 how they plan to fly to Tivat. But probably Airports of Montenegro which has some silly policy of forcing legacy airlines to use TGD instead of TIV directed them there. And of course no one from the UK wanted to go on holiday to Montenegro by arriving in Podgorica.
Well, at least Dubrovnik is close so it can be used as an alternative.
DeleteAny chance of Ljubljana becoming year round?
ReplyDeleteFirst they need to extend it for the whole of summer!
DeleteFirst they need to start flights!
Delete"starting June 3, the airline will deploy a Finnair Airbus A321 aircraft on the majority of its services to the Slovenian capital." - i guess they are performing well. i dont understand why they are not flying year round.
ReplyDeleteYes it seems 3-4 out of 5 weekly will be on the A321.
DeleteMy guess is that LJU will eventually become year-round.
DeleteSo Finnair is back to LJU 😃LOL
DeleteTrue haha
DeleteBravo Fraport LOL!!
DeletePRN is missing in the article.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't.
Delete"Services to Dubrovnik and Pristina will continue operating with the carrier’s own equipment."
They should resume two cities they formerly operated to - Sarajevo and Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice to see them back in Skopje too.
DeleteInteresting. Didn't even know they flew to Skopje.
DeleteYep from 1999 till 2001.
DeleteIn 2010 they were interested in Skopje again. They even held talks with the government. But it didn't work out.
DeleteAnd then by 'coincidence' Wizz Air came along and launched the London route...
DeleteSarajevo was the first of their ex-Yu routes to be discontinued. Back in 2008.
DeleteActually it was Skopje as stated above. They started flights to SKP in 1999 but suspended them in 2001.
DeleteI don't see the need for them in BEG. Air Serbia will be flying to Heathrow daily from this month.
DeleteThey keep overlooking SKP and BEG, destinations which will work daily for sure, with healthy loads
ReplyDeleteSkopje really needs a link with LHR
DeleteThere is only one way of getting BA to BEG: getting JU into Oneworld
DeleteDon't see that happening unfortunately.
DeleteI still don't understand why OneWorld hasn't made any overtures to JU. They are based in Southeast Europe, which is the biggest gap in OW coverage, the airline quality is decent and the network is respectable. It's the most logical match imaginable.
DeleteFrankly the main reason I don't fly on JU unless absolutely necessary is because it doesn't do anything for any major alliance status, and with business travel down 90% vs. what I used to fly in 2019, I can't requalify as easily as I used to. For a transfer carrier, joining an alliance is essential.
I wouldn't be surprised if they have been approached but they don't want to join any alliance because you have to actually pay fees to be part of an alliance. Although I believe the benefits would be much greater.
DeleteJU has next to no partnerships with One World members. They partner the most with SkyTeam members followed by Star Alliance. AY is the only partner JU has in the OneWorld alliance, and JU has canceled direct flights to HEL.
DeleteUK continues to be the only European country that Serbian passport holders need a visa to access, including even for transit. Using LHR to complement their network is not possible to the same extent as is with AMS and CDG for example. JU doesn't have optimal slots into LHR for regional connections which makes JU useless to BA. JU for years hasn't been able to get more slots into LHR.
The only benefit JU could possibly have with a OneWorld membership is having a partner in the US (AA), who have hubs in JFK and ORD. But they would also have a US partner with a SkyTeam membership (DL).
The only other OneWorld hub JU serves is MAD, and JU already has an extensive agreement with UX, who is in SkyTeam.
Large changes need to be made for JU to be a fit for OneWorld, and I don't see that happening any time soon.
@10,02
Jat Airways was offered to join SkyTeam, with AF and OK being sponsors.
"UK continues to be the only European country that Serbian passport holders need a visa to access, including even for transit."
DeleteI don't see this as a big obstacle, as virtually all Serbian passengers transiting through LHR would be connecting to the US and Canada, and having a visa for those countries exempts you from having to apply for a UK transit visa. For Latin America, MAD makes much more sense as a hub anyway.
On the other hand, the benefit of being able to shuttle JFK pax onward with AA would have a massive impact. At the moment, traffic to/from JFK is still largely O&D.
@Vlad
DeleteThe connection possibilities at LHR isn't significantly better compared to AMS to justify a change in partners, for which JU would most likely need to do joining One World.
Any potential transfer pax to anywhere in Northern Europe would have to have a transit visa for the UK, which is an additional procedure compared to transferring in AMS, which is what JU has now. AMS is 3-4 connected with per day, LHR 1 daily.
JU already has a Latin American partner in MAD, which is UX. Sure, IB is the bigger carrier however I don't think the Latin American market has large demand justifying the need for a bigger partner.
As for JFK, SkyTeam also offers a partner with DL.
Jedini plus za Oneworld je bolja konekcija prema Aziji i pogotovu Australiji.
DeleteSkyTeam je bolji zbog DL posto bi oni najpre uveli mozda direktnu liniju za BEG. A sto se tice Juzne i Latinske Amerike to bi bilo dosta dobro pokriveno sa UX, AZ,AM i AR. Jedino bi Australija ostala sa losim konekcijama.
INN-NS
What a mess. Brace for more cancellations after July.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing how short sighted airlines were when they were making people redundant left and right. Of course none of the executives or decision makers will face the consequences.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteGood news for Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteHow many flights is OU maintaining between Zagreb and Heathrow?
DeleteAt the moment a lousy two flights per week.
DeletePlease don't use the term lousy in anything related to OU. They are simply the best. Adeze as well!!!
DeleteThey will increase to 3 per week in June. How many weekly slots does OU have at LHR? I forget after the sold some a few years back.
DeleteNot 100 % sure, think it's 5
DeleteActually, I believe it's 4.
DeleteFrishki is right. They had 7 slots and they sold 3. So 4 are left.
DeleteThey had 9 slots, double daily Saturday and Wednesday, but sold 5 to DL
DeleteSurprise - surprise! Grumpy old pozdrav again!
DeleteGet your self a life! Or even better, get prepaired for the next elections to vote Adeze. Because obviously what triggers you is my opinion of your Party and its toy OU and that's why you use any opportunity to spit on me. I said I was not sure initially, and I made such a disastrous mistake of one slot. Wow! Not only I don't deserve to write anything here, I don't deserve to live! Thanks God Adeze and you are such experts in everything! You should be ashamed!
DeleteBA does really well in Zagreb. Shame they have to reduce flights for operational reasons.
ReplyDeleteI think they are being affected more and more by Ryanair in Zagreb.
DeleteOf course, if you are a tourist or local why should you pay €250 to fly on BA or OU that have barely any service when FR can fly you to London for a fraction of that price?
DeleteIronically FR is also reducing Zagreb-London.
DeleteFR is hurting OU more than BA. BA is used by transfers.
DeleteOU passengers are around 50% transfers through Heathrow!
DeleteZAG is the only ex-yu capital linked with British Airways on a year round basis. Still a milestone....
ReplyDeleteYes, a milestone in weak national carriers that leave enough room for BA to thrive.
DeleteWhen I read the headline I was certain the news would be that they are cancelling LJU :D gave me a scare.
ReplyDeleteAnd you even got Finnair back 😃
DeleteWin win situation ;)
Deleteit wouldn't even be bad idea to have circle flight - LHR-HEL-LJU-HEL-LHR (JAT all the way, lol)
Delete@notLufthansa
DeleteBelieve you meant Jat Airways, not JAT. On its top, JAT operated :
Daily B727 BEG-ZAG-LHR
once weekly DC-10 BEG-LHR
three weekly B727 LJU-LHR
Two weekly B727 PUY-LHR
Once weekly B737 RJK-LHR
once weekly B737 ZAD-LHR
three weekly B727 SPU-LHR
four weekly B727 DBV-LHR
Once weekly B727 TGD-LHR
Plus Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow from coastal airports.
No triangles.
Just for general public to be informed
Anon 10:09
DeleteWait for one more week.
Why? :( you think it will be cancelled?
DeleteImpressive. Thanks PIR
DeleteCroatia is really their only focus market in ex-Yu. For example they are flying both Gatwick and Heathrow to Dubrovnik (before pandemic it was just Gatwick).
ReplyDeleteDo they still fly London City - Split or are those not back yet? I think they started them in 2019.
DeleteLjubljana - London flights are fully booked almost every time; A few sundays in June to LHR are already sold out; we should see LHR year round soon
ReplyDeleteExcellent news. I really hope they eventually extend the season.
DeleteWhen the airport/govt gets rid of the busiest airline at the airport (and their most popular routes were to London) you would've expected that BA would be full. Also considering we had three daily flights to London by three airlines to 4 airports and now there are just 9 weekly, if we include BA there would be 14 but easyjet will even decrease number of flights to just 5 weekly. So not even double daily. Nothing to be happy or proud of.
Delete^ true that
DeleteAwful airline
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteBad service, delayed or cancelled flights, poor cabins and high fares.
DeleteVery poor and short sighted planning on behalf of British Airways, London Heathrow and several other airlines. Easyjet included.
ReplyDeleteSame problem with many airlines in the US.
DeleteRyanair is having similar issues in Zagreb.
Delete