ABTA and the Government move to calm fears over flight cancellations

BTA and the Government have issued new statements to ‘clarify and reassure’ customers following reports yesterday about flight cancellations.

Several news outlets warned customers to prepare for a large number of cancellations, based on data from aviation analyst Cirium. The data used was global and the number of cancellations was less than 1%.

ABTA Chief Executive Mark Tanzer said: “We really don’t want people worrying about their holidays; planes are taking off daily and people are continuing to get away on their holidays.

“The Government and airlines are clear that there isn’t a problem with fuel supply. If you have a holiday booked in for the coming months – including the May half-term – we expect it to go ahead as planned.

“While there have been reports about cancellations globally, these amount to less than 1% of overall flights.”

ABTA said the statement had been issued to provide ‘clarification and reassurance for customers’.

The Department for Transport also issued a statement, saying: “There is no current need for passengers to change their travel plans. UK airlines buy jet fuel in advance, and airports maintain stocks to support their resilience. The Government is working closely with the aviation industry to monitor risks and minimise disruption to passengers.”

It added: “While there has been media reporting on flights cancelled internationally in May, data from Cirium shows only 0.53% of the UK’s planned flights for the month have been cancelled. The majority of these UK cancellations are to and from the Middle East due to the conflict.

“This is within the range of the number of cancellations we would expect in a normal year, and we continue to monitor the situation. In previous years, we typically saw around 1% of all flights arriving or departing from the UK cancelled, based on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) punctuality statistics.

“Data from Cirium shows that only up to 0.2% of flights have been cancelled from June to August.”

The media reports also prompted Airlines UK to repeat its message that flights are not being cancelled.

Chief Executive Tim Alderslade said: “No flights are being cancelled due to fuel shortages.

“UK airlines are planning to operate their full schedules this summer, including the May half-term.”
 

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