"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."
This was the statement of John Holland-Kaye , Heathrow CEO , when United Kingdom's largest Airport squeezed it's capacity on 12th July , which followed Gatwick Airport and in Schiphol - Amsterdam to limit the travel chaos , induced by staff shortages.
Today , Heathrow (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL) has announced that it will extend its cap on the number of travellers for another six weeks as the air travel and aviation sector continues to struggle to reach normalcy amid exceptional demand for travel.
Last publication of Heathrow Airport read ,
"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."
Revised statement of Heathrow says , No more than 100,000 travellers will be able to depart per day until October 29 , which indicates that they are not yet ready to achieve their full capacity , for which manpower plays a vital role.
Earlier , Heathrow had acknowledged that their new recruits aren't ready yet — which again is hampering the capacity of the Airport.
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.
Now Heathrow said , the move was taken following an improvement in punctuality and fewer delays after introducing a temporary cap in July.
In the path of recovery of air travel , Heathrow had witnessed departing passenger numbers regularly exceeding 100,000 a day , untill month of July.
And during this time , there were periods when service dropped to an unacceptable level : long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and last-minute cancellations , became the major worry for the Airport.
To avoid these chaotic situations , the capacity limit of 100,000 daily departing passengers was initially to last until September 11 , but that date has been pushed back on Monday.
Post Pandemic Revenge travel has never been 'kind' on the Aviation and Airports , tens of thousands of flights have already been cancelled this summer as the industry has struggled to match the demand for air travel amid staffing shortages.
Air travellers to and from the UK’s major airport have suffered severe disruption in recent months , with long security queues and baggage system breakdowns.
Visuals from Manchester Airport Baggage collection area.Chaos continues ! Visuals from Manchester Airport Baggage collection area , as certain airlines don't have their own baggage handlers. ???? Dave Beaumont #airlines #aviation #avgeek #airports
Posted by FL360aero on Sunday, August 14, 2022
Heathrow said the cap imposed in July had resulted in “fewer last-minute cancellations” and “shorter waits for bags”.
It added the capacity limits would be kept under review and “could be lifted earlier should there be a sustained picture of better resilience and a material increase in resourcing levels”.
In the month of June , the DfT and CAA wrote to the sector asking us all to review our plans for the summer and ensure we were prepared to manage expected passenger levels safely and minimise further disruption. U.K. Ministers subsequently implemented a slot amnesty programme to encourage airlines to remove flights from their schedules with no penalty.
Regarding the new date of passenger cap , Heathrow chief commercial officer Ross Baker said:
“Our primary concern is ensuring we give our passengers a reliable service when they travel. “That’s why we introduced temporary capacity limits in July which have already improved journeys during the summer getaway.
“We want to remove the cap as soon as possible, but we can only do so when we are confident that everyone operating at the airport has the resources to deliver the service our passengers deserve.”
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