British Airways weekend cancellations exceed 200 flights with more axed on Sunday
Exclusive: Stranded passengers targeted by scammers on social media
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British Airways has cancelled dozens of flights to and from its main base at London Heathrow for a third day in a row.
More than 30 shorthaul departures and arrivals are grounded, including two round-trips to and from Vienna. Other flights to holiday destinations such as Malaga, Nice and Rome are among the cancellations.
At London City, BA has cancelled flights to Malaga, Nice and Rotterdam.
Gatwick cancellations included Marrakech and Turin, as well as longhaul services to Tampa and Las Vegas. A Gatwick-Tenerife flight on British Airways is delayed by 10 hours.
On Friday and Saturday, BA axed more than 160 flights to and from Heathrow, blaming poor weather and air-traffic control restrictions at its main base.
The Independent has asked the airline for the cause of the latest cancellations. According to data from the aviation tracking service Flightradar24, no other airline has cancelled any flights from Heathrow on Sunday.
How to respond if your British Airways flight is cancelled
One passenger, Ornella, wrote on Twitter/X: “British Airways, thanks for destroying our day – cancel flight at the last moment and let the people spend three hours on the phone trying to get an answer is not normal when you are at a wedding.”
British Airways responded, saying: “Send us your booking reference via DM [direct message] along with as much information as possible so we can take a closer look.”
But at least four scammers masquerading as BA also replied.
Someone calling themselves “John Lewis British Airways Representative” and claiming to be from the “BritishAirways Support Team” wrote: “Hello, it’s unfortunate for the challenge encountered. We would like to closely look at the concern raised. Please follow back and share with us via DM your full name, email address, phone number, and reservation number to allow us further.”
The standard scam is for the victim to be called on WhatsApp and asked to download a remittance app “to receive compensation” but in fact be tricked into sending hundreds or thousands of pounds to criminals based abroad.
