According to data supplied by AirNav RadarBox, British Airways continues to struggle amid COVID-related restrictions. The airline has recorded a 20% dip in commercial flights between July 23-30, as border closures and worries over the delta variant continue to grip international travel.
The numbers
Between July 23-30, the airline recorded 280 commercial flights. This number is down 20.45% compared to last week and 59.54% fewer than operated in the same period last year.
For July 16-23, the figures were slightly higher but still recorded a decrease. 304 flights operated in that time period which was down only 10%, indicating that the numbers have decreased two-fold between July 23-30.
The numbers from July 16-23 were down around the same percentage as this week compared to the same period last year.
Is this about to change?
There are indications externally that the numbers could change rapidly over the next few months for the airline.
Via a statement from the airline, bookings at the carrier have surged by 95% within hours of the UK Government's announcement surrounding travel.
This means that the airline will be adding extra capacity to the following cities:
- New York
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- Berlin
- Geneva
- Hamburg
- And others!
Commenting on the news was Sean Doyle, the Chairman, and CEO of British Airways who expressed excitement over the news:
"We are very much looking forward to welcoming new visitors from the US and EU to the UK from next week, many of which will be reuniting with their family members for the first time in many months. This move will also help boost the British economy and the hospitality sector, which like aviation, has been crippled by the effects of the pandemic."
“We will support our customers as we emerge from this crisis and hope for crucial travel corridors to be established to allow reciprocal agreements. This will allow UK nationals to travel as the UK’s Covid cases fall and vaccination rates continue to rise.”
The key to this uptick was the UK government's waiving of quarantine for fully vaccinated arrivals from Europe and the USA, marking a step in the right direction for travel opening up again.
Overall, whilst the airline is experiencing detrimental numbers, we will no doubt see a sharp rise in flights across AirNav RadarBox data towards the end of the year.
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