Travel News

• British Airways passengers received an email mid-flight saying their connection had been canceled.

• Airport staff couldn't locate the passengers' luggage, making them travel to Edinburgh without bags.

• Heathrow has been asking airlines to cancel flights at the last minute due to a lack of capacity.

Three British Airlines passengers said they got an email during their flight informing them that the airline had canceled their connecting flight.

The passengers told Insider that their flights from the US to Edinburgh, Scotland to watch the British Open golf tournament had been hit by a spate of cancelations affecting airlines worldwide.

Raynee Graeff, Victoria Esparza, and Robert Esparza left Austin, Texas on Sunday night for London Heathrow, where they would take another flight to Edinburgh. They had booked their tickets through American Airlines, but British Airways — one of American Airlines' codeshare partners in the OneWorld alliance — operated the flights.

However, Robert Esparza said that they received an email while they were en route to Heathrow saying that the flight to Edinburgh due to depart at 11:45 a.m. UK time had been canceled. The email American Airlines sent to Graeff was sent at 6:43 p.m. Central time — just after their flight had taken off.

They didn't get the email until landing at Heathrow at about 9:50 a.m. — just two hours before the second was scheduled to depart.

The subject of the email read: "Please call to book a new flight."

"One of your flights was canceled and we were unable to rebook your trip from LHR to EDI," American Airlines said in the email, which was viewed by Insider. The email did not give a reason for the cancellation. "We're sorry for the change to your travel plans."

American Airlines said that passengers could call their helpline to rebook their flight, request a refund, or use the value of their ticket as credit for a future trip.

On Monday, Heathrow asked airlines to cancel 61 flights scheduled for that day, saying that the company expected more passengers than it could cope with at terminals 3 and 5. British Airways uses terminal 5 as its main base.

Graeff had booked her trip in November and spent $1,291 on return flights, according to a booking confirmation Insider viewed.

The passengers said that they had not been able to book seats on another flight to Edinburgh and instead took a train, arriving at their accommodation at about 1 a.m. Of the 12 BA flights from Heathrow to Edinburgh on Monday, one departed on schedule, and BA canceled the other five.

All three passengers told Insider that they also hadn't received their hold luggage after landing at Heathrow and had been forced to go to Edinburgh without it.

Graeff said that they had been told they would be reimbursed for the canceled flight, train tickets, clothes, and cosmetics — within reason — but that she hadn't yet received any compensation.

Two other passengers traveling with two small children told Insider that BA had canceled their Monday flight from Heathrow to Frankfurt — where they were due to catch a connecting flight to Hong Kong — with only a few hours' notice.

The passengers said this was the second time BA had canceled part of their flight back to Hong Kong, though the airline had notified them of the first cancellation in advance.

The passengers said BA had no other flights available, so they had to book a flight with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul. British Airways' flight tracker shows that the airline had canceled three of its five Monday flights from Heathrow to Frankfurt.

Have you been affected by current travel disruptions? Or do you work at an airport or for an airline that's swamped by staffing and cancelation chaos? Email this reporter at [email protected].

KEY POINTS

• Draghi has often pushed for a reformist agenda and his work has softened previous concerns among investors regarding the stability of Italy’s economy.
• Italy is due to have new parliamentary elections before June 2023, but the latest uncertainty in Rome could bring that forward.
• After Mattarella’s rejection of Draghi’s resignation, the former European Central Bank chief will now have to go back to Parliament to hold a vote of confidence in the government itself.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrives for a press conference in Rome, Italy, on July 12, 2022.
STR | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

Political uncertainty returned to Rome Thursday with the government in a state of limbo and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi being urged to rethink his resignation.

Draghi on Thursday said he would quit as Italian leader, after a political party in his ruling coalition refused to participate in a confidence vote earlier in the day.

“I will tender my resignation to the president of the republic this evening,” Draghi told the Cabinet, according to a statement translated by Reuters, throwing Italian politics back into a fragile state of affairs.

But the Italian head of state later on Thursday rejected Draghi’s resignation and asked him to address Parliament to get a clear picture of the political situation, according to a statement from President Sergio Mattarella’s office.

The Five Star Movement, one of the parties in the coalition government led by Draghi, had earlier opposed a new decree aimed at lowering inflation and battling rising energy costs. Italy’s lawmakers held a confidence vote on the wide-ranging policy package, but Five Star boycotted despite Draghi threatening to step down if the party didn’t back it.

Analysts, however, contended that the opposition to this policy package is not so much ideological but a result of internal party disputes.

“The move by the M5S was largely triggered by turmoil prevailing within the ailing party rather than by meaningful policy differences with the executive,” Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of the consultancy firm Teneo, said in a note Thursday.

After Mattarella’s rejection of Draghi’s resignation late Thursday, the former European Central Bank chief will now have to go back to Parliament to hold a vote of confidence in the government itself.

EU very much likes to have Draghi leading Italy, official says amid new political uncertainty

Bond yields rise

Draghi has been in power since February 2021 and has led a government formed by several parties and technocrats with the aim of bringing stability to the southern European nation, which is often thrown into fresh rounds of political chaos.

Draghi has consistently pushed for a reformist agenda and his work has softened previous concerns among investors regarding the stability of Italy’s economy. But this new setback risks efforts to secure post-pandemic funds from the EU and also comes as Europe pushes hard to ween itself off Russian hydrocarbons.

Italy is due to have parliamentary elections before June 2023, but the latest uncertainty in Rome could bring that forward.

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Draghi, despite still having a majority in the Italian Parliament without the support of the Five Star Movement, has previously said he would not be available to lead another executive.

Italian bond yields pushed higher during the session ahead of Draghi’s announcement and Italy’s FTSE MIB shed 3.3% by the market close, with banking stocks taking a tumble.

By Abdullateef Aliyu

The chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji, has said the inauguration of direct flight from Nigeria to China would bring relief to travellers.

Daily Trust Saturday reports that a Nigerian carrier, Air Peace, had flagged off a direct one weekly flight from the Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA), Lagos to Guangzhou, China.

This was the first time a Nigerian carrier would be operating a direct flight to the Asian country.

It would be recalled that another Nigerian airline to set its foot on the Asian airspace was the defunct Bellview Airline, which operated to India before the airline collapsed.

The Air Peace is also set to inaugurate flight to Mumbai, India in few weeks.

With the direct flight to Guangzhou, many Nigerian businessmen would not have to access China through connecting flights.

Nnaji, while commending the management of Air Peace on the commencement of direct flight between Nigeria and China, noted that the move would bring a huge relief to Nigerians and citizens of other African countries who travel regularly on business trips to China.

He stressed that Nigeria, and indeed, Africa, shared huge business and cultural ties with China, adding that the direct air link would further strengthen such relationships.

Nnaji, who represents Njanu East/West federal constituency of Enugu State, assured that the legislature would continue to work with the executive to ensure a robust aviation industry in the country. 

The airline blames fuel scarcity and closure of the Lagos airport runway.

By Abdulkareem Mojeed

Ibom Air has said its passengers will experience flight delays in the coming weeks due to scarcity of aviation fuel and the closure of the domestic runway at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos.

In a statement Friday, the Akwa Ibom State-owned carrier said the delays are “unavoidable” and will be for the next three months.

“The Management of Ibom Air regrets to inform the general public and our customers in particular, that despite our best efforts, our passengers will experience flight delays this period, due to two critical factors: The closure of the domestic runway (Runway 18L) at Murtala Mohammed Airport for the next 3 months and the current serious scarcity of aviation fuel,” the airline statement read.

The airline said it will try to minimise the impact of these factors on its flight schedule.

Within the past three months, major domestic airline operators have lamented about the sharp increase in aviation fuel and have threatened to halt operations repeatedly. The intervention of the Nigerian government, which promised to resolve the aviation fuel scarcity, has apparently not been felt.

The lingering scarcity pushed airline operators to increase flight base fare to N50,000 and above since February this year, with many Nigerians criticising the move.

Ibom Air’s flight figures shows that the airline scheduled a total flight of 1,023 in June. Of this figure, it operated a total of 965 flights, rescheduled 234 flights, delayed 199 flights and cancelled 58 flights.

“Fuel availability is a major impediment to schedule reliability and on time performance in June,” the airline management said.

The development comes as residents continue to face shortages that began in 2021.

BY Mary Izuaka

Fuel marketers increased the pump price of petrol in Abuja on Monday, with several stations selling the product above the government-regulated price of N165 a litre.

The development comes as residents continue to face shortages that began in 2021. While the government says it has enough supplies to go round, marketers say several factors have made it difficult to sell at the approved rate.

The president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Okoronkwo, told PREMIUM TIMES while his members were not selling at a loss, their margin had fallen significantly. He blamed high cost of logistics and the war in Ukraine, although the crisis predates the conflict.

Last week, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, said despite payment of extra freight claims to marketers, they were asking for more. He said the situation in Abuja continued because marketers were closely monitored to ensure they maintain the approved rate, unlike elsewhere where they can sell at higher prices.

A PREMIUM TIMES correspondent who visited petrol stations on Monday in Abuja found that some filling stations in the Lugbe and Wuse areas of the city had started selling to buyers at prices as high as N190.

(Bloomberg) -- It was supposed to be a post-Covid-19 summer in Europe. Masks are gone in most places, and vacation season is in full swing as workers rush for the beaches and cities they missed in the two years marked by the pandemic. But instead, the reality confronting people is that the virus never went away.

A super-transmissible subvariant of the omicron strain, known as BA.5, is fueling a fresh increase in infections, with cases climbing across the UK and the continent. Intensive-care admissions are rising, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, which has warned that another wave of the disease is starting.

The ending of restrictions on international travel and the return of mass-participation events such as music festivals are also helping the virus to spread. And cases may already be far higher than the figures currently show, given most countries have dramatically scaled back testing.

But governments have long thrown out the initial Covid playbook, and are loath to tighten mask rules, limit gatherings or reinstate vaccine and testing requirements for travel. Most are pushing for another round of boosters for at-risk people, counting on Europe’s relatively high vaccination rates to continue to keep the death rate down.

The timing of the uptick suggests that Covid isn’t yet seasonal like the winter flu. Instead, the successive waves of ever more infectious versions show that it’s still not clear what living with the virus will mean in the long run, said Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“This isn’t like seasonal influenza,” he said, adding that there’s no guarantee that the current vaccines will continue to be as effective against future variants. “We’re seeing waves coming every few months. And as a consequence, we need to reassess where we go with this.”

To combat the summer spike, the ECDC issued new guidance this week recommending that adults over the age of 60 and medically vulnerable people of any age consider a second booster now instead of waiting for a shot that’s been adapted to be more effective against the current variants.

According to ECDC Director Andrea Ammon, given that most people in that age group had their original boosters more than three to six months ago, protection against severe disease may be waning.

“The risk for people is now,” said Pierre Delsaux, head of HERA, the EU’s emergency health authority. “It’s better to be vaccinated now because the current vaccines are still effective.”

In the UK, the government announced Friday it will broaden its Covid booster shot campaign, set to begin in the fall, to include everyone aged 50 and over. The infection rate there is rising, and is at the highest since April in England, according to the latest survey.

Hospitalizations are also rising, in some cases more quickly than the recorded spike in infections. The disparity between the measures is probably due to less accurate surveillance, said Louise Blair, who leads the vaccine and variants team at London-based data firm Airfinity Ltd.

She added that the summer wave is a reminder that the virus isn’t seasonal yet. “We’re actually seeing cases and waves being driven by new variants rather than mixing indoors,” Blair said. 

And the surge isn’t confined to Europe. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week said that the BA.5 variant probably accounts for about 65% of cases. Infections there could reach 600,000 cases per day, Bloomberg Intelligence estimated in a report, based on patterns seen in South Africa, where omicron was first identified, and elsewhere.

New York’s positivity rate is at the highest since January, and Los Angeles County raised its Covid warning level this week. It also warned that if case numbers are sustained, masks will be required indoors. In Japan, Tokyo lifted its infection alert to the highest level.

“From a psychological perspective, many people may feel like they are caught in a limbo around Covid,” said Rachel McCloy, a behavioral psychologist from the University of Reading. The absence of restrictions sends a message that things are back to normal, but “on the other side rates are rising, people are ill and at risk, and everything is still very much not as it was,” she said.

(Bloomberg) --

Less than a decade ago, London’s Heathrow was the undisputed hub airport for Europe, with thousands of daily passengers and an ambitious expansion plan that included a brand new runway. Terminal 5 was still a novelty -- the UK’s largest free-standing building hosted a string of glitzy shops and restaurants, including one founded by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. The airport was associated with aspiration, growth and an outward-looking Britain.

How things change. Today, Heathrow is locked in yet another dispute with airlines after insisting they halt ticket sales during the lucrative school holiday season, a move that could cost as much as $500 million in lost revenue. The airport has been struggling to manage a post-pandemic rush in holidaymakers, with long queues of frustrated fliers becoming a common scene. One airline, Emirates, initially refused to comply with the cap on passengers, describing it as “airmageddon,” before backing down. The UK government has been forced to intervene, demanding a “credible and resilient” recovery plan from the airport.

Any prospect of a third runway remains years away, as critics ask whether Heathrow needs more space if it cannot even cope with its current capacity, regardless of environmental concerns. With Britain’s chronic labor shortage at the heart of the travel chaos, Heathrow’s travails have become emblematic of a nation beset by economic stagnation, political upheaval and an increasingly uncertain place in the world.

Heathrow is not alone, of course. It has been a torrid summer for air travel across Europe. London’s Gatwick, Amsterdam’s Schiphol and Frankfurt are among a number of airports limiting capacity. Nonetheless, the UK has been harder hit than its counterparts on the Continent, given its extremely low number of job-seekers and a limited supply of European labor post-Brexit.

The Emirates row raised the prospect of a rebellion from other airlines reluctant to curb passenger flows following two years of limited foreign travel. Late Friday, the carrier and the airport announced an about-face.

Emirates said it’s “ready and willing to work with the airport to remediate the situation over the next two weeks, to keep demand and capacity in balance and provide passengers with a smooth and reliable journey through Heathrow this summer,” according to a joint statement. “Emirates has capped further sales on its flights out of Heathrow until mid-August to assist Heathrow in its resource ramp-up, and is working to adjust capacity.”

The airport’s relationship with carriers was already strained after it tried to increase fees by as much as 95% compared with pre-Covid levels, to compensate for the hit from the pandemic. The plan led to Willie Walsh, the former head of British Airways, accusing the airport’s bosses of having “zero commercial nous.” In June, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority limited fees to an average maximum price of £26.31 ($31.17) per passenger in 2026, down from £30.19 today -- a victory for the airlines and a bloody nose for Heathrow.

The tensions are heightened by the effect of Covid, which triggered losses of $180 billion for airlines according to industry group IATA, which is run by Walsh.

“The aviation industry, including the airports, are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place as they had no choice but to slash their workforces at the height of the pandemic, when no revenue was coming in,” said Rob Morris, the global head of consultancy at Ascend by Cirium. “That’s also meant that in rehiring, they’ve jeopardized their return to profitability and growth.”

The UK’s relatively liberal labor laws made it easy for airport operators and airlines to dismiss staff early in the pandemic. However, they subsequently struggled to replace the workers quickly enough when demand rebounded. Some people have found preferable employment in other parts of the economy, rather than returning to their old jobs at airports or on planes.

“Strict security clearance requirements in the sector, and a reduced post-Brexit pool of candidates able to meet clearance criteria, are slowing down hiring processes at UK airports and airlines,” wrote Fitch Ratings analysts this week. “Low unemployment levels in the country also mean that airports and airlines need to increase pay and provide further incentives to hire staff, increasing costs and putting pressure on margins.” 

While the situation is unenviable, airlines accuse Heathrow of failing to foresee a huge jump in demand for foreign vacations once Covid restrictions were scrapped. Heathrow’s Chief Executive Officer John Holland-Kaye played down a surge in bookings in April, saying that a lot of demand came from “people cashing in vouchers or taking postponed journeys.” Last month he said it could take a further 18 months for the sector to get back to full capacity, leading Virgin Airways boss Shai Weiss to label him “lord doom.”

This year’s peak season shows little sign of producing the kind of revenues that could have been possible. And while Heathrow says it is scaling up hiring and will soon have as many people working in security as it did pre-pandemic, there is no guarantee that demand will stay elevated following a winter of record-high energy prices and soaring food costs.

“For Heathrow and the rest of the aviation industry, I think it’s key to focus on getting sorted for summer 2023, although the gloomy economic outlook makes it much harder to forecast demand,” said Cirium’s Morris. 

Holland-Kaye has diverted some of the blame, arguing that airlines don’t have enough workers, “in particular ground handlers, who are contracted by airlines to provide check-in staff, load and unload bags and turnaround aircraft.” 

The feud adds to a sense of frustration around air travel at a time when it was expected to reflect the embrace of pre-Covid freedoms. Instead, the summer holiday season is becoming dominated by pictures of sleeping passengers crowded onto airport terminal floors. 

Holidaymakers face a summer of flight chaos, as easyJet and Ryanair plan strike action through July along with Lufthansa and SAS, over ongoing disputes concerning working conditions and pay.

British Airways had also threatened possible strike action at Heathrow in late July, although developments on July 7 suggest that the airline may have reached an agreement with the unions to sidestep the walkout.

In recent weeks there has been chaos at airports across the continent unrelated to strike action, as airlines and airports struggle with staff shortages following the pandemic. Thousands of flights from the UK have been cancelled in this period, with easyJet one of the worst-affected airlines and Ryanair one of the least impacted.

And the disruption is set to continue as Gatwick plans to cap flight departures through July and August, a move that will lead to thousands of easyJet flight cancellations during the period. Heathrow has also unilaterally cancelled flights due to high passenger numbers (including 61 on July 11 alone), and British Airways will cancel thousands of flights this summer to avoid a repeat of recent disruption.

Below we outline the airline strikes, planned flight cancellations and airport departure capacity limits that have already been announced in the UK and across Europe.

July 1–August 31

Gatwick flights capped

Gatwick Airport has capped the number of flight departures during the peak summer season to 825 daily flights in July and 850 in August. This could lead to the cancellation of as many as 10,000 flights this summer, with easyJet likely to be the most-affected airline. A spokesperson for the airline said: “In response to these caps and in order to build additional resilience, easyJet is proactively consolidating a number of flights across affected airports.”

British Airways flights capped

British Airways has announced it will slash as many as 650 flights through July, affecting up to 100,000 passengers, in an attempt to avoid last-minute delays and cancellations.

July 1–30

Lufthansa cancellations

German flag carrier Lufthansa will cancel up to 1,000 flights on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through July, making up around 5 per cent of the airline’s total weekend services. The move is to avoid further disruption due to ongoing staff shortages.

July 12–15

Ryanair strike action across Spain.

Further strike action from the Spanish staff of the Irish low-cost carrier. Madrid, Málaga, Seville, Alicante, Valencia, Barcelona, Girona Santiago de Compostela, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca are the airports that could be affected by Ryanair strike action.

July 15–17

EasyJet cabin crew strike in Spain

The second proposed dates for a cabin crew walkout in Spain. The first strike dates were between July 1 and July 3. Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Seville and Santiago de Compostela airports could all be affected by the strike action.

July 18–21

Ryanair strike action across Spain.

Madrid, Málaga, Seville, Alicante, Valencia, Barcelona, Girona Santiago de Compostela, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca are the airports that could be affected by Ryanair strike action.

July 25–28

Ryanair strike action across Spain.

Madrid, Málaga, Seville, Alicante, Valencia, Barcelona, Girona Santiago de Compostela, Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca are the airports that could be affected by Ryanair strike action.

July 29–31

EasyJet cabin crew strike in Spain

The third proposed dates for a cabin crew walkout in Spain. Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Seville and Santiago de Compostela airports could all be affected by the strike action.

BY  Christopher Jasper, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. will carry out test flights using a flying taxi model from UK startup Vertical Aerospace Ltd. as the futuristic technology moves closer to becoming a reality.

Virgin will operate one flight from the main airport in Bristol, England, where Vertical is based, to an airfield elsewhere in the southwest, according to a joint statement Monday. A second will link the carrier’s own London Heathrow hub and a so-called vertiport to be built by infrastructure specialist Skyports.

The announcement comes at the start of the Farnborough Airshow southwest of London, where electric vertical takeoff and landing craft, or eVTOLs, are playing a higher profile role as competing designs reach maturity.

The demonstration missions will take place in spring 2024 -- subject to approval by the UK Civil Aviation Authority -- in line with Vertical’s target of receiving type certification for its VX4 craft in time for service entry by 2025.

The program will be supported by £9.5 million ($11.4 million) in UK funding to a group led by engineering firm Atkins and including national air navigation service provider NATS, airports and a number of universities, as well as Vertical, Skyports and Virgin, which has a slew of outline orders for the VX4.

The test flights will evaluate vehicle operation, navigation, ground charging and security provision following development of physical and digital infrastructure, including a vertiport, where ground and aerial trials will begin in about a year.

Vertical Aerospace is one of a number of companies competing to be first to bring eVTOLs to market. The UK startup has a backlog of 1,400 commitments for the VX4, with American Airlines Group Inc. saying Friday it was ready to make down payments to reserve delivery slots.

Nigeria’s oldest airline, Aero Contractors, has temporarily suspended operations over economic crisis.

The PUNCH reports that airlines in Nigeria have been lamenting the skyrocketing price and scarcity of aviation fuel, Jet A1, with many of them threatening to shut down.

In the statement announcing the suspension, the airline said the suspension of operation would take effect on July 20.

However, the statement said the temporary halting of operations “does not in any way affect the maintenance activities of the Approved Maintenance Organisation otherwise known as AeroMRO, the Approved Training Organisation also known as Aero Training School, the Helicopter and Charter Services operations.”

“This decision was carefully considered and taken due to the fact that most of our aircrafts are currently undergoing Maintenance, resulting in our inability to offer a seamless and efficient service to our esteemed customers.”

“We are working to bring these aircrafts back to service in the next few weeks, so we can continue to offer our passengers the safe, efficient, and reliable services that Aero Contractors is known for, which is the hallmark of Aero Contractors Company of Nig. Ltd.

“The past few months have been very challenging for the Aviation Industry and the airline operators in particular. With the high cost of maintenance, skyrocketing fuel prices, inflation, and forex scarcity resulting in high foreign exchange rates. These are among the major components of airline operations.

“In the meantime, we are working assiduously to return to service as quickly as possible, and do assure our esteemed customers and stakeholders of our determination, that our short absence will not create any major void in the market, as we are coordinating with our business partners to ensure minimum discomfort to ticket holders.

“As members of Spring Alliance (a commercial alliance with member airlines providing mutual support in the area of operations), we are liaising with our partner airlines to minimise the impact on our esteemed customers.

“Our customer service team will be working to help affected esteemed customers reach their destinations.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused to our esteemed customers and promise to return to service as soon as possible. “We thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding at this time.”

This announcement comes just over a month after the Airline Operators of Nigeria recently asserted that three of its members may cease operations due to the unavailable and high prices of Jet A1 among other challenges airlines have had to face so far in the new year.