British Airways strike: Fares soar on rival airlines during walkout dates

British Airways’ (BA) main rival, easyJet, is set to make millions as a result of the forthcoming strikes by BA pilots – with the fare on a single two-hour flight from Nice to Gatwick costing more than a round trip from London to Melbourne.

BA has cancelled hundreds of flights, affecting tens of thousands of passengers, ahead of industrial action by pilots.

Members of the British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) are striking on 9, 10 and 27 September.

Since BA told passengers on Friday evening that their flights were cancelled, many travellers have spent hundreds or thousands of pounds on alternative tickets.

Airlines’ pricing systems are designed to increase fares sharply when there is a surge in demand – such as on strike days on another carrier.

For the 622-mile flight from Nice to Gatwick at 5.40pm on Tuesday 10 September, easyJet is charging £676 one-way. This fare does not include checked baggage.

The following Tuesday, the same flight is available for £112 – one-sixth of the price.

For a round trip leaving London for Melbourne on 10 September, returning two weeks later, the cheapest deal is £619 return, booked direct with Royal Brunei. This includes 21,000 miles of air travel, all inflight meals and 30kg of luggage.

Fares on easyJet from some Italian airports are also very high; from Venice to Gatwick on 9 September the early evening flight costs £414. And from Naples to Gatwick on 10 September, the morning easyJet flight is £386, with the afternoon departure completely sold out.

Prices at those levels are very unusual for September. The main short-haul beneficiary of BA’s mass cancellations is easyJet, which has recently changed its pricing policy to extract maximum revenue from late bookings.

Going long haul, the grounding of many BA flights has also triggered fare increases. One BA passenger, Gael Dunan, reported that in the nine minutes while she was trying to book a replacement flight on KLM, the fare soared by 400 per cent.

“I know the situation with BA is causing many problems, but for KLM to profit from them is disgraceful,” she said.

The Independent checked fares on the benchmark London Heathrow-New York JFK route, travelling out on 9 September and back on 27 September, the third strike date on BA.

The lowest fare on Virgin Atlantic is £666 return. For the corresponding flights one week later, the price drops to £341 – indicating a “strike premium” of 95 per cent.

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, BA is responsible for booking passengers on rival carriers when seats are available.

Unless BA can offer an alternative departure the same day on its own services, the airline must pay the going rate to enable the passenger to fly.

Despite the BA pilots’ strike, which has forced up fares to many destinations, there are some bargains around.

Flying out on 9 September, returning the following day, Ryanair has a fare of £20 return from Stansted to Dublin. To Geneva and back on these strike days, easyJet is selling flights from Gatwick at £70 return. And Wizz Air has a return fare from Luton to Prague of £76.

Some of the BA travellers booked on dates around 9 and 10 September were erroneously told their flights were cancelled, only for BA to reinstate their bookings less than 24 hours later.

The airline says it will refund reasonable additional costs caused by the mistake.

All fares checked direct with airlines between 11am and noon on 26 August 2019