London, Paris cut more flights as travel turmoil persists
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LONDON • London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle (Paris CDG) airports are cutting more flights as Europe's travel chaos continues into the summer.
Heathrow asked airlines to cut 30 flights from their schedules yesterday morning amid concern that peak passenger numbers will exceed the level it can safely handle.
France's civil aviation authority ordered a 17 per cent reduction in flights out of Paris CDG yesterday because of a strike by firefighters. The walkout led to a shutdown of two of the hub's four runways.
The labour strife could continue into the weekend and spill over to Paris' other air hub at Orly, as more categories of workers plan walkouts.
As a result of the disruptions yesterday, Air France-KLM's French arm cancelled 62 flights, while maintaining all of its long-haul and 90 per cent of short-and medium-haul connections, according to a spokesman.
While the flights affected represent only a small portion of the total from the two airports, the last-minute cancellations add to the chaos surrounding travel in Europe as staffing shortages upend timetables and labour unrest gathers steam.
Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport prior to the coronavirus pandemic, will work with carriers to rebook passengers onto services outside peak hours so that as many as possible can still fly, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
British Airways, the airport's biggest carrier, had already slashed summer capacity by 10 per cent to reduce pressure on operations.
The British government told airlines it was up to them to avoid a repeat of recent chaotic scenes at airports, publishing a 22-point plan yesterday on what it was doing to support the industry. The government last week relaxed rules around airport slots to allow airlines to devise realistic flight schedules and avoid last-minute cancellations.
"It's now on airports and airlines to commit to running the flights they've promised or cancel them with plenty of time to spare so we can avoid the kind of scenes we saw at Easter and half term," Transport Minister Grant Shapps said in a statement.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
