Staff at British Airways have suspended a strike that had been planned at Heathrow during the school summer holidays after receiving a “vastly improved” pay offer from the airline.

After extensive negotiations, the Unite and GMB unions said an agreement was reached and members involved in the dispute would now vote on the proposed offer.

It is not all good news for would-be travellers.

Data by Cirium, the aviation analytics company, shows that BA will operate 289,964 flights this summer, which is 15% below the planned level.

The figures do not include the 10,300 summer flights that the airline announced would be cancelled this week. Including those, the airline has removed 18% of capacity.

No long-haul flights are involved.