The UK's busiest airport has announced drastic measures that are being implemented as it continues to face a struggle with demand over the summer. In a statement issued today (July 12), bosses at London Heathrow said that the number of passengers departing the airport will be capped.
No more than 100,000 daily passengers will be able to depart from today until September 11. Airlines planned to operate flights with a daily capacity averaging 104,000 seats over that period, according to Heathrow.
The airport has also said it has asked airlines to "stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers". Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye added: "Over the past few weeks, as departing passenger numbers have regularly exceeded 100,000 a day, we have started to see periods when service drops to a level that is not acceptable."
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Problems include long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and last-minute cancellations, Mr Holland-Kaye said. He further said this was due to a combination of poor punctuality of arrivals due to delays at other airports and in European airspace, as well as increased passenger numbers "starting to exceed the combined capacity of airlines, airline ground handlers and the airport".
He added: "Our colleagues are going above and beyond to get as many passengers away as possible, but we cannot put them at risk for their own safety and wellbeing."
In a statement, he explained the global aviation industry was recovering from the pandemic but the legacy of Covid continued to pose challenges for the entire sector as it rebuilds capacity. He went on to say: "At Heathrow, we have seen 40 years of passenger growth in just four months.
"Despite this, we managed to get the vast majority of passengers away smoothly on their journeys through the Easter and half-term peaks. This was only possible because of close collaboration and planning with our airport partners including airlines, airline ground handlers and Border Force.
"We started recruiting back in November last year in anticipation of capacity recovering this summer, and by the end of July, we will have as many people working in security as we had pre-pandemic. We have also reopened and moved 25 airlines into Terminal 4 to provide more space for passengers and grown our passenger service team.
"New colleagues are learning fast but are not yet up to full speed. However, there are some critical functions in the airport which are still significantly under resourced, in particular ground handlers, who are contracted by airlines to provide check-in staff, load and unload bags and turnaround aircraft. They are doing the very best they can with the resources available and we are giving them as much support possible, but this is a significant constraint to the airport's overall capacity."
Mr Holland-Kaye explained that further action was needed to ensure passengers had a safe and reliable journey. "We have therefore made the difficult decision to introduce a capacity cap with effect from 12 July to 11 September," he added. "Similar measures to control passenger demand have been implemented at other airports both in the UK and around the world.
"Our assessment is that the maximum number of daily departing passengers that airlines, airline ground handlers and the airport can collectively serve over the summer is no more than 100,000. The latest forecasts indicate that even despite the amnesty, daily departing seats over the summer will average 104,000 – giving a daily excess of 4,000 seats. On average only about 1,500 of these 4,000 daily seats have currently been sold to passengers, and so we are asking our airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers.
"By making this intervention now, our objective is to protect flights for the vast majority of passengers at Heathrow this summer and to give confidence that everyone who does travel through the airport will have a safe and reliable journey and arrive at their destination with their bags. We recognise that this will mean some summer journeys will either be moved to another day, another airport or be cancelled and we apologise to those whose travel plans are affected."
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