Travel warning issued with air fares and flight cancellations 'set to peak next year'

James Rodger

16 November 2024 at 10:49 am·2-min read

Travel warning issued with air fares and flight cancellations 'set to peak next year' — -Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)

Air fares and flight cancellations are soaring due to a severe shortage of plane engines and spare parts. Post Covid, holidaymakers have been warned production cuts are harming the air travel industry - putting vacations at risk.

Industry insiders say flight cancellations linked to supply chain issues will peak next year. It comes as Virgin Atlantic and British Airways (BA) are making further changes to their networks due to ongoing supply chain issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines powering their Boeing 787 fleets.

Virgin Atlantic has postponed the relaunch of its Tel Aviv service and the introduction of a new route to Accra, Ghana. The airline cited reduced availability of Trent 1000 engines fitted to its 787-9s as the reason for the delays.

“Our teams are working closely with our partners at Rolls-Royce on solutions to minimize disruption to our flying program,” a spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic says. BA is also adjusting its network because of aircraft capacity constraints, suspending daily services between London Heathrow and Kuwait, and London Heathrow and Bahrain, effective March 29.

“We’re disappointed that we’ve had to make further changes to our schedule as we continue to experience delays to the delivery of engines and parts from Rolls-Royce—particularly in relation to the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines fitted to our 787 aircraft,” a BA spokesperson said at the time of the October cuts.

Paul Charles is a former director of communications at Virgin Atlantic and is now CEO at The PC Agency. He told The Indpendent that the engine supply issues have "caused massive problems for airlines and consumers".

He said: “Airline planning teams have had to rewrite their rulebooks on how they use their fleet on the most popular destinations that they need to protect – and gamble on which routes will pay the price and be deleted from their networks."

He warned that airfares will continue to rise – and that 2025 will see "record fares on many routes".

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