SPAA LODGES STRONG PROTEST AT BA CANCELLATIONS
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SPAA Secretary Alisdair Tannahill has lodged a strong protest with British Airways, on behalf of Council and Members, following the cancellation of a series of flights between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and London Heathrow, starting on Thursday of last week and continuing into Monday.In an email, Friday, to BA Head of UK + Ireland Sales - Richard Tams, the Association said, ‘We’re receiving comment from our members regarding the wholesale cancellation of flights from/to Edinburgh and Glasgow over yesterday, today and tomorrow morning. While appreciating that these are very challenging times for the airline, with a need for reduced operations at Heathrow, we cannot understand why there are simply no flights operating at all on these two routes and yet those to Paris and Amsterdam have near normal service with limited cancellations, and on most other routes there are at least some flights operating. Aberdeen has four rotations today so why not at least a limited service to/from Glasgow and Edinburgh?As we have indicated often before, there are no alternatives available to us to get passengers to and from Scotland who have either come off your long-haul or are connecting to your long-haul services.We would be grateful if you can impress on your operations team, who have an extremely difficult job, just how important these domestic links are to us.In his response, Richard Tams acknowledged the frustration expressed, and continued, ‘I hope this situation will not continue for too much longer and I will be putting pressure on the operation to this effect. We are laying-on an extensive coach service, which I know is not ideal, but which does at least get people on their way. Doing this to Aberdeen, Paris and Amsterdam is more difficult.’The SPAA will continue to monitor the situation closely, and make the voice of Members heard where and when necessary. SPAA Air Convenor Kevin Thom comments, ‘Given BA’s clear objective of protecting and re-growing their business travel volumes and yield, it makes no sense, in our view, for the airline to undermine that effort by cutting off the connecting feed through Heathrow, on which Glasgow and Edinburgh’s business travellers rely so heavily!’
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