British Airways has been forced to cancel hundreds of flights from UK airports due to a significant problem. New routes to Malaysia have been cancelled, and the number of flights to Qatar has been reduced by half.
Services to and from other destinations, including Gatwick and JFK in New York, have also been put on hold. The alterations to the routes and the cancellation of flights are expected to affect thousands of passengers, with the airline already having cancelled 11 routes.
British Airways has identified the issue as being with the Trent 1,000 engines, which are used on their fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets.
Due to excessive wear and tear on the engine parts, 15 percent of the fleet has been grounded as Rolls-Royce has been unable to provide enough replacement parts for the affected planes.
With five planes of their fleet grounded, British Airways has resorted to using Boeing 777s to fill the gap, although these too require regular repairs. A route from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur is set to be delayed and will now commence in April 2025 instead of the original plan for November 2024, according to The Sun.
One of the two daily flights to Doha has been cancelled, and flights between Gatwick and JFK have been suspended for the winter from December.
A spokesperson for BA stated: “We’ve taken this action because we do not believe the issue will be solved quickly, and we want to offer our customers the certainty they deserve.
“We’ve apologised to those affected and are able to offer the vast majority a flight the same day with British Airways or one of our partner airlines. We continue to work closely with Rolls-Royce to ensure the company is aware of the impact its issues are having on our schedule and customers, and seek reassurance of a prompt and reliable solution.”
British Airways conveyed to the disrupted passengers: “Unfortunately, Rolls-Royce, our engine supplier for our fleet of Boeing 787 aircraft, is experiencing challenges.
“We’re not the only airline experiencing this issue and are doing all we can to work with Rolls-Royce to resolve the situation.”
A spokesperson for Rolls-Royce commented: “We continue to work with British Airways and all of our customers to minimise the impact of the limited availability of spares due to the current supply chain constraints. Unfortunately, this is an issue affecting the whole aerospace industry.”