The UK Civil Aviation Authority has issued a warning to British Airways over its handling of the upcoming pilot walkout which is due to take place next month.
The warning follows a weekend of chaos as customers struggled to contact the airline after some passengers received wrong correspondence that their flights were cancelled.
BA pilots are due to strike on 9, 10 and 27 September. However, BA told customers with tickets booked on other days that their flights were cancelled.
BA then sent a second email to some people saying their original flights would go ahead as planned.
Confusion arose even more when in the second email, passengers were not given a link to automatically rebook onto their original flight, meaning they had to contact BA directly.
Since then, the Civil Aviation Authority has said it has been in contact with BA to make sure it was complying with European air passengers’ rights legislation, following concerns raised by customers.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority's consumer rights say that BA is required to offer passengers whose flights have been cancelled the choice of a refund, alternative travel arrangements such as flights on other airlines, or a new flight at a later date.
Commenting on the situation, Richard Stephenson, director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “We have been in contact with the airline to determine what has happened and are seeking an explanation to confirm how it complied with its re-routing obligations to consumers.
“Passengers who have seen their flights cancelled should be offered the choice of reimbursement for cancelled flights, alternate travel arrangements under comparable conditions at the earliest opportunity which includes flights on other airlines, or a new flight at a later date at the passenger's convenience. We also expect airlines to proactively provide passengers with information about their rights when flights are cancelled.”
The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) said 93% of its members had voted in the ballot, which took place 22 July, in favour of industrial action.