British Airways cutting a further 10,300 short-haul flights

British Airways has said it will cut a further 10,300 short-haul flights until the end of October, with long-haul unaffected.

It comes as the airline hired a new operations chief.

Rene de Groot, who currently leads operations at Dutch airline KLM, will move to British Airways as chief operating officer (COO) on October 1.

EasyJet, which has also been badly hit by cancellations, parted ways with its COO Peter Bellew on Monday.

The airline has been one of the worst hit for cancellations in recent months axing thousands of flights, including many on the day they were due to depart.

The industry has been hit by widescale disruption amid staff shortages and strike action.

Prestwick Airport is set to be hit by industrial action in the coming weeks, one of the country’s largest trade unions has confirmed.

Unite has said that it will ballot its members over claims that airport management refused to provide shift pay and meet the Real Living Wage rate for new starters.

British Airways said: “The whole aviation industry continues to face into significant challenges and we’re completely focussed on building resilience into our operation to give customers the certainty they deserve.

“The Government recently decided to give the whole industry slot alleviation to minimise potential disruption this summer. While taking further action is not where we wanted to be, it’s the right thing to do for our customers and our colleagues.

“This new flexibility means that we can further reduce our schedule and consolidate some of our quieter services so that we can protect as many of our holiday flights as possible.

“While most of our flights are unaffected and the majority of customers will get away as planned, we don’t underestimate the impact this will have and we’re doing everything we can to get their travel plans back on track. We’re in touch to apologise and offer rebooking options for new flights with us or another airline as soon as possible or issue a full refund.”