British Airways is to cancel almost 1,000 flights from Heathrow Airport before the end of the year under moves to improve its operational performance.
Short- and long-haul destinations will be affected, including flights to New York, Brussels, Manchester and Glasgow.
BA said 966 flights would be cancelled over the next three months - an average of 12 a day - out of a total of 41,000.
A spokesman said it was part of a plan for the airline to have a "robust" programme and to build some slack into the flight programme.
Union leaders claimed the airline was still short of check-in staff at Heathrow, a problem which led to flight cancellations and delays for travellers in the summer.
BA added it was recruiting new staff into areas such as check-in.
The company said there will be some reductions on a small number of routes which have a large number of daily flights from Heathrow.
BA stressed that the cancellations represented a tiny percentage of its flying operation at Heathrow.
Thursday September 16, 2004
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