‘airmageddon’ effect ! John  Holland Kaye , CEO - Heathrow has until midday on Friday to deliver his assessment of the cap of 100,000 Passengers .

In an attempt of piling the pressure on London Heathrow CEO , Emirates urged Airport’s shareholders – largely sovereign wealth funds , including 'Qatar Investment Authority(QIA) ' – to “scrutinise the decisions of the management team”. This was the outcome, when heathrow asked Emirates to reduce capcity and cancel bookings !

Now , UK government has given an ultimatum  !  John William Holland-Kaye , Chief Executive Officer , Heathrow Airport has until midday UK time on Friday to deliver his assessment of why the airport determined that a cap of 100,000 daily departing passengers “provides a safe and resilient airport with a positive passenger experience” ! 

The stir and ultimatum are seen as the development after Emirates' non-complaince of Heathrow’s demand that carriers cut summer flights , saying it would continue to operate its planned schedule and accusing the London airport of facing “airmageddon” due to their incompetence and non-action”.

Other Carriers like Delta tried empty flights to carry piles of baggages to bring some relief to the inconvenience already faced by passengers due to chaos and capacity cut .

Delta said ,

"Delta teams worked a creative solution to move delayed checked bags from London-Heathrow on July 11 after a regularly scheduled flight had to be cancelled given airport passenger volume restrictions at Heathrow."

But , Emirates had reacted to the Heathrow's capacity cut notice saying ,

"It is therefore highly regrettable that LHR last evening gave us 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts, of a figure that appears to be plucked from thin air. Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should throw out paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance."

Sir Tim Clark , Emirates’ president , described Heathrow’s demand that the airline cut one of its six daily A380 superjumbo flights to Dubai as “delinquent”.

On Thursday, Emirates said it had been given 36 hours from Wednesday night to comply with capacity cuts of a figure “that appears to have been plucked from thin air”.

Emirates' press release further specifies ,

At London Heathrow airport (LHR) , our ground handling and catering – run by dnata, part of the Emirates Group - are fully ready and capable of handling our flights. So the crux of the issue lies with the central services and systems which are the responsibility of the airport operator.

Emirates is a key and steadfast operator at LHR, having reinstated 6 daily A380 flights since October 2021. From our past 10 months of regularly high seat loads, our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport.

Apparently , UK Government took a notice of this situation , Rannia Leontaridi , a civil servant in the DfT , and Richard Moriarty , the chief executive of the UK-CAA , wrote to the Heathrow management :

“Heathrow and the airlines that use your airport must be assured, and be able to assure us, that you have in place a plan that can deliver a positive passenger experience through allowing as many people as possible to travel, without too much disruption and queues, and in particular to avoid significant numbers of short-notice and on-the-day cancellations.

“The Government and the CAA are concerned that current resourcing plans are not delivering this outcome.”

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