British Airways has brought in almost 100 extra staff members to deal with customer requests and complaints, as it braces for next month’s pilot strikes.
Almost 60,000 calls and 52,000 tweets flooded BA over the bank holiday weekend, as customers discovered their flights would be affected by pilot walkouts on September 9, 10 and 27.
A spokesperson for the airline said an extra 90 customer service workers were drafted in by Tuesday to help deal with the high call volumes.
“The longest waiting time is now only six minutes,” they told The Standard.
It comes after swathes of customers reported trying for “hours” to get hold of BA representatives, following an “email error” on Friday which sparked widespread confusion.
BA issued a public apology over the mistake which wrongly informed a number of passengers their flights had been cancelled.
Many rushed to arrange alternative flights – only to learn hours later their original travel plans were unaffected.
A spokesman for the airline said on Sunday: "We are sorry that some customers received an email in error to say that their flight had been cancelled on non-strike days.
"We are getting in touch with all those customers this afternoon to clarify that their flight will go ahead as planned.
"We are sorry for any confusion and inconvenience this has caused."
He said anyone who went on to spend money on alternative arrangements should contact British Airways it would "deal with each case on an individual basis".
The spokesman clarified that some flights on non-strike days will be affected but that the bulk of those cancelled are on the three strike days.
The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) announced the strikes on Friday night after 93 per cent of its members rejected an 11.5 per cent pay rise across three years.
Before BA issued its apology, Adam French a Which? consumer rights expert, said the issue had caused "a lot of confusion and anxiety".
"It is vital that the airline ensures that any customer who was initially informed that their flight was cancelled and has booked an alternative flight is not left out of pocket,” he said.
"British Airways must now put all resources necessary into sorting out this mess as soon as possible."
The airline said at least 500 staff were now working round the clock to help customers rebook flights and chase refunds as quickly as possible.
