BA announced the cuts on Monday (22 August), which will predominantly affect short-haul flights to and from Heathrow between late October and March. Ryanair claimed the cuts amounted to around 8% of BA’s total planned schedule at Heathrow this winter.
Flag carrier BA said the move followed Heathrow’s decision to extend its current 100,000-passenger a day capacity cap until 29 October.
Ryanair said its additional capacity would span flights to and from 20 UK airports and will see its full-year traffic grow from a targeted 165 million passengers to more than 166.5 million.
The budget carrier highlighted city break and winter sun fares to Spain, Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Greece and France being a particular focus.
Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary said the airline would operate its largest-ever winter schedule as a result. "UK families can book with confidence that they will get to their low-fare city break and winter sun getaways without the risk of flight cancellations," he added.
