{"id":18662,"date":"2026-05-07T14:13:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/18662\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T14:13:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:13:03","slug":"airlines-cut-1500-uk-airport-flights-in-may-as-summer-of-chaos-begins-full-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/18662\/","title":{"rendered":"Airlines cut 1,500 UK airport flights in May as summer of chaos begins – full list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 13,000 flights have been removed from May schedules worldwide, according to aviation analytics company Cirium, with 1,468 cut from the UK’s biggest airportsMilo Boyd<\/a> Deputy Travel Editor & Commercial Writer<\/p>\n

12:47, 06 May 2026Updated 13:45, 07 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"Palma<\/p>\n

Each airline have been tackling the issue depending on their own schedule, routes and fuel supplies (Image: Boarding1Now via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Airlines have axed 1,500 UK flights this May so far, exclusive analysis by the Mirror has shown.<\/p>\n

As the Middle East crisis and rocketing jet fuel costs <\/a>push up expenses ahead of the industry’s peak travel period, airlines are grounding flights in a desperate bid to save cash. Around 13,000 flights<\/a> have been stripped from May schedules across the globe, according to figures from aviation analytics firm Cirium.<\/p>\n

Of those, 1,468 are from the UK’s biggest airports, representing 275,616 scrapped seats. That figure was obtained using the latest data, which was compared with flight schedules on April 10 to those on April 21.<\/p>\n

The 1,468 figure does not include the dozens of other smaller UK airports, which have also been affected.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/p>\n

Global aviation has been hit hard<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Your rights if your flight is cancelled this summer as airlines given new powers<\/a>READ MORE: Beautiful beach island ‘now a nightmare’ overwhelmed by tourists<\/a>UK airport cancellations for MayHeathrow: 846 flights, 151,198 seatsGatwick: 218 flights, 53,728 seatsBirmingham: 200 flights, 21,880 seatsGlasgow: 86 flights, 35,016 seatsManchester: 60 flights, 8,760 seatsEdinburgh: 56 flights, 7,062 seatsNewcastle: 46 flights, 5,056 seatsStansted: 16 flights, 2,384 seats<\/p>\n

In total, 410 routes have been affected across the UK’s major airports.<\/p>\n

While the overall figure may appear high, airlines have added many different flights that bring the net number of cancellations down significantly. The net number of cancellations from Heathrow is currently around 100.<\/p>\n

Although these figures have been published amid growing global issues with jet fuel supply, a Government spokesperson has said: “UK airlines are clear that they are not currently seeing a shortage of jet fuel.” Those UK cancellations which have occurred are understood to be a consequence of other factors, such as the more direct impact of the Iran War.<\/p>\n

Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, the industry body representing UK-registered carriers, said: \u201cUK airlines are operating normally and fuel supplies remain stable with good visibility. To be clear, no flights are being cancelled due to fuel shortages and reports to this effect are incorrect.\u201cUK airlines are planning to operate their full schedules this summer, including the May half-term, and are looking forward to taking our customers away. Our priority, as always, remains getting passengers to their destinations safely and on time across the full summer season and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Heathrow said: “As the country\u2019s busiest airport by far, we will always have a higher number of cancellations than other airports due to the sheer scale of operations at Heathrow. As a proportion, we\u2019re in line with the sector. Important to note we\u2019re still Europe\u2019s most punctual hub airport, so passengers are continuing to get reliable journeys here.<\/p>\n

“While some routes have been cancelled due to airspace closures in the region, many airlines have pivoted to alternative destinations or increased frequencies elsewhere, so we\u2019re still broadly serving the same number of people.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Manchester Airport said: “Airports aren’t responsible for decisions to cancel flights and the things that lead to cancellations (weather, strikes, airline issues, ground handling issues) are out of airports’ hands.”<\/p>\n

Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said: \u201cIt is understandable that holidaymakers are feeling apprehensive about their summer travel plans due to the wave of cancellations. The percentage of flights cancelled from the UK remains small, when you consider that the worst airlines cancel over 2% of flights less than a day before departure, even in normal times. Our advice for this summer is to book a package holiday, as that is the best way to protect the full cost of your holiday should greater disruption occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Istanbul, among the world’s busiest airports, and Germany’s Munich airport have seen the sharpest drops in passenger numbers. German carrier Lufthansa has axed 20,000 short-haul flights through its Cityline subsidiary, while Irish aviation favourite Aer Lingus has scrapped hundreds of flights from its summer timetable.<\/p>\n

The cost of jet fuel has doubled since the outbreak of war on 28 February. Air France said it anticipates a $2.4bn (\u00a31.7bn) rise in its jet fuel costs this year, while American Airlines expects its bill to climb by more than $4bn, as reported by City AM.<\/p>\n

The UK government has been forced to step in, with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander easing the “use-it-or-lose-it” slot regulations, enabling airlines to merge half-empty flights to conserve fuel without forfeiting future operating privileges.<\/p>\n

Alexander is also championing staycations, following a nudge from Sir Keir Starmer that Britons would need to think about changing “where they go on holiday”.<\/p>\n

As tensions in the Middle East continue, UK refineries have been instructed to ramp up jet fuel production as part of emergency contingency measures.<\/p>\n

Julia Lo Bue-Said OBE, CEO of Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “While airlines globally are making targeted adjustments in response to fuel pressures, the scale should be kept in perspective \u2014 13,000 cancellations represent just over 1% of all flights worldwide, with the greatest impact felt on routes through Istanbul and Munich. UK departures, including key summer holiday routes, remain unaffected, and there is no reason for customers to delay or reconsider their travel plans.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 13,000 flights have been removed from May schedules worldwide, according to aviation analytics company Cirium, with 1,468…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6090,17],"class_list":["post-18662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-aviation","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}