Winter travel warning: All the airlines cancelling flights between now and March 2023

Staff shortages, strikes and general transport chaos are forcing more airlines to cancel flights this winter. Thousands of passengers across Europe are likely to be affected.

Lufthansa confirmed today that it will be removing some flights from its winter schedule from now until 26 March 2023. So far the airline hasn’t confirmed how many will be cancelled but says it is due to staff shortages, particularly at Frankfurt Airport. Lufthansa may also make some changes to flight times from October.

British Airways (BA) has announced that it was scrapping more than 1,000 flights before 29 October due to an extension of the passenger cap at Heathrow Airport. The cap was introduced in July, limiting the number of people travelling each day to 100,000 in a bid to prevent last minute cancellations.

A further 10,000 flights are also being axed from the BA’s schedule between 29 October and March next year. It amounts to around 8 per cent of the airline’s schedule during this time period.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines has cancelled 1,600 flights from its September and October schedule. The carrier says it is a knock-on effect of the two week pilot strike in July and a delay in aircraft deliveries.

Low cost Hungarian airline Wizz Air is scrapping almost all of its flights from Cardiff Airport, Wales from September for more than six months. This includes services to popular European holiday destinations like Alicante, Corfu and Lanzarote as well as some further afield.

Just two destinations will still see services from Cardiff Airport - Milan and Bucharest. Wizz Air says “economic pressures” were behind the decision to cancel the flights.

In the US, airlines are also trimming their schedules this winter.

American Airlines plans to cut more than