The UK’s busiest airport, London Heathrow, is quieter than normal today, after airlines were told to cut 30 flights from their schedules up to 12.30pm.
One in 40 of today’s flights from the UK’s busiest airport is cancelled, affecting at least 5,000 travellers.
The Independent understands the “intervention” was made after it became clear that airlines were expecting 13 per cent more passengers today than last Thursday.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We will work with airlines to get affected passengers rebooked onto other flights outside of the peak so that as many as possible can get away.”
British Airways is the biggest airline and most affected. The cut of around 15 domestic and European flights is in addition to the 100-plus daily departures that have been cancelled with several weeks’ notice.
BA is believed to be sending out some aircraft empty of passengers on order to bring people back.
Other airlines affected include Virgin Atlantic, which cancelled a transatlantic round-trip. A spokesperson said: “Due to mandatory flight capacity restrictions being implemented by Heathrow Airport on all airlines in Terminals 2, 3 and 5 on Thursday 30 June, we’ve had to cancel one London Heathrow-New York (JFK) return service, operating as flight numbers VS45 and VS4.
“This step to limit the number of flights that can operate has been taken by Heathrow in order to uphold the airport security experience and manage security staffing resource.”
The cull of flights also affected Lufthansa to Frankfurt and Munich; KLM to Amsterdam; Aer Lingus to Dublin; and Air France to Paris.
Under European air passengers’ rights rules, no cash compensation is payable – but any passenger whose flight is cancelled can insist on being rebooked on the same day if a seat is available, even if it requires the airline that grounds the original departure to pay for a ticket on a rival carrier.
The cuts are taking place on the eve of the peak summer season, covering July and August.
Overnight Air Canada warned of “meaningful reductions to our schedule in July and August” to try to avoid last-minute cancellations.
Michael Rousseau, the chief executive, said: “To bring about the level of operational stability we need, with reluctance, we are now making meaningful reductions to our schedule in July and August in order to reduce passenger volumes and flows to a level we believe the air transport system can accommodate.”
Meanwhile passengers using Paris CDG are experiencing problems due to industrial action by firefighters, reducing capacity at the busiest French airport.
