At the end of last week, the British removed all cheap fares from sale in an attempt to dissuade customers from booking. For example, the cost of a flight from London to Berlin really started from more than 900 euros. Now the airline has gone even further by shutting down ticket sales on all of its short-haul flights from Heathrow.
The reason for this demarche is simple. The carrier is trying to keep empty seats for passengers whose flights may be canceled at the last minute. British Airways continues to cut flights due to staffing shortages and Heathrow's controversial artificial capacity limit.
The airline has already reduced passenger traffic to 69 percent of pre-pandemic levels due to a “difficult operating environment” ; at Heathrow, and has cut schedules by 18 percent since May. The problems continue.
In addition to limiting ticket sales, British Airways continues to contact passengers whose flights are already booked until August 7, and try to convince them to cancel flights.
Customers receive e-mail official offers to use the voucher if they decide to reschedule the trip. In addition, passengers on short-haul flights are given the opportunity to change the date of departure without penalty to any date in the future.