Hundreds of British Airways flights to and from Heathrow have now been cancelled as the airline battles to restore its operations at its main base. This has left thousands more passengers added to the numbers stranded by BA’s difficulties, with an estimated 100,000 now out of position. Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds-Bradford and Newcastle are the UK routes selected for further cancellations. Many European destinations which have already seen multiple groundings Sunday and Monday have been selected for further flight cancellations, including Dublin, Berlin and Rome. By 6pm Monday, well over 300 BA departures and arrivals at Heathrow had been grounded, a similar number to those cancelled Sunday. Many outbound long-haul services were axed, including 5 to New York alone. <br/>
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It is growing increasingly clear that even at double-time pay, many American Airlines pilots have not been persuaded to give up their family holidays and fly in the days surrounding Christmas. Nevertheless, the airline is continuing to assure December travellers that there will be no cancellations. Last week, the airline acknowledged a scheduling glitch allowed many pilots to drop their December flights, putting more than 10 thousand flights in jeopardy of cancellation. The double time for flying between December 17 and the 31st was a hastily worked-out solution intended to incentivise the pilots to pick up those flights without crews. The pleas continued over the weekend for captains and first officers and yet some 1,200 flights, largely in the eastern US are still without the required crew compliment. <br/>
A Qatar Airways Airbus A321 has been badly damaged by fire during maintenance at the airline’s home hub at Hamad International, Doha. According to the Aviation Herald website, the aircraft—believed to be A7-AIB—“sustained substantial damage and possibly needs to be written off.” Pictures on social media show extensive damage to the top of the fuselage, which was burned through at several points. The interior also appears to have sustained substantial damage. The airline acknowledged the incident saying: “A Qatar Airways Airbus A321 aircraft positioned at a remote stand experienced a fire while under maintenance..the fire inside the cabin was promptly contained and extinguished. While there was some damage to the aircraft, there were no injuries. A full investigation is being conducted”. <br/>