After limiting the number of passengers departing from the hub to 100,000 per day to reduce lines, luggage delays, and cancellations, London’s Heathrow Airport urged airlines to stop selling tickets for summer departures on Tuesday.
Like other airports in Europe, the busiest in Britain is having trouble keeping up with the increase in demand following the pandemic. Between July and August 2019, Heathrow saw a daily departure of between 110,000 and 125,000 passengers.
Airport officials claimed that although airlines at Heathrow had already complied with a government request to reduce capacity, they still needed to go farther.
CEO John Holland-Kaye wrote in an open letter on Tuesday, “Some airlines have taken considerable steps, but others have not, and we feel that further action is needed now to guarantee passengers enjoy a safe and reliable journey.”
Therefore, “We have decided to implement a capacity cap with effect from 12 July to 11 September,” a difficult choice.
We apologize to anybody whose travel plans will be impacted. “We recognize that this will mean some summer trips will either be rescheduled to another day, another airport, or be cancelled,” he continued.
The London hub claimed that the cap was consistent with restrictions set by its competitors. The Netherlands’ Schiphol airport has set a passenger ceiling that is roughly 16% below 2019 levels, while Frankfurt has reduced peak-hour flight capacity from 104 to 94 flights per hour.
According to Heathrow, there are typically 104,000 outgoing tickets left in the summer timetables, which is 4,000 more than its daily quota. It stated that, on average, 1,500 of the 4,000 available seats had been bought by travelers.
Holland-Kaye stated, “We are asking our airline partners to cease selling summer tickets to minimize the impact on travelers.
Following the British government’s promise of amnesty if airlines did not utilize their slots, British Airways (ICAG.L), Heathrow’s largest client, has already canceled 10,300 short-haul flights between August and October in order to minimize inconvenience.
After airlines projected a significant increase in traffic, Willie Walsh, the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and a former CEO of British Airways, stated Heathrow should have organized itself.
Heathrow apologized for the lengthy lines and baggage problems customers have seen in recent weeks on Monday, blaming a lack of workers throughout the entire aviation industry.
