British Airways will operate more than half its normal flight schedule next Friday after a strike by pilots was called off.

Although BA had stopped selling tickets for 27 September and started cancelling bookings, it will merge some services and operate more than 400 flights on the day. It is also offering to rebook thousands of cancelled passengers.

The airline emailed passengers on 12 September to confirm cancellations, just before a 14-day notice period when it would have been liable for additional compensation payments under EU regulation.

A BA spokeswoman said: “We are offering all customers whose flights were cancelled due to next week’s planned industrial action the option to rebook on to a British Airways flight, with a schedule of services to our daily destinations on 26, 27 and 28 September.”