As airports fight against a staffing crisis, Heathrow Airport today imposed an unprecedented 100,000 cap on daily leaving passengers until September and ordered airlines to halt selling summer tickets.
The extraordinary action will place a cap on how many people can depart the airport between July 12 and September 11.
Over that time, airlines planned to operate flights with an average daily capacity of 104,000 seats, which means that further cancellations are likely.
In order to minimize the impact on travellers, Heathrow claimed it has ordered airlines to “stop selling summer tickets.”
Due to a staffing deficit caused by the thousands of employees that were fired or departed the sector during COVID, passengers have been affected by delays and cancellations at airports throughout the UK.
10,000 travellers were inconvenienced by yesterday’s 61 additional last-minute Heathrow aircraft cancellations.
Additionally, in yet another evidence of instability, easyJet passengers’mutinied’ yesterday after being made to wait for four hours on the runway at Gatwick Airport.
They had to wait “till midnight” to get their luggage after being brought back to the terminal because the jet never even took off.
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye made the announcement of the passenger cap today.
He said: “Over the past few weeks, as departing passenger numbers have frequently topped 100,000 a day, we have started to observe occasions where service declines to a level that is not acceptable.”
According to Mr. Holland-Kaye, issues include excessive wait periods, delays for passengers who need assistance, bags that do not fly with passengers or arrive late, poor punctuality, and last-minute cancellations.
He claimed that the reason for this is a mix of rising passenger traffic that is “beginning to exceed the combined capacity of airlines, airline ground handlers, and the airport,” together with poor punctuality of arrivals caused by delays at other airports and in European airspace.
He said, “Our staff are working really hard to evacuate as many passengers as they can, but we cannot jeopardize their safety and wellness.”
EasyJet passengers were detained on a runway for four hours yesterday in sweltering circumstances, the latest illustration of the dysfunction engulfing UK airports.
Dominey Jenner, a passenger, reported that although the flight was scheduled to leave Gatwick for Dubrovnik at 1.40pm yesterday, due to delays, passengers were only able to board at 4.30pm, leading to a lengthy wait.
She claims that at the time, when it was 86°F (30°C) outdoors, clients were only given “one glass of water” and there was no food on hand.
After a “mutiny” on board, when “people gave a deadline as to when they would simply go,” they finally left the aircraft around 8.30 p.m.
She claimed, “I heard that the Gatwick police were about to come and escort us off because they’d had calls from passengers on board.”
When they got off the plane, Ms. Jenner claimed their luggage “didn’t arrive until midnight” and that even though they weren’t travelling anywhere, passengers had to go through passport control.