Heathrow boss blames airlines for staffing shortages hitting travel

The boss of Heathrow has laid the blame on airlines for the staffing shortages that have caused the airport to issue an unprecedented passenger cap, warning that carriers were “mandated” to cancel flights and cut passengers numbers in response.

John Holland-Kaye wrote to the UK government after Emirates led a backlash against the passenger limits put in place this summer, with the Gulf airline saying it would ignore the move and fly as normal.

The UK’s busiest airport this week introduced a daily limit of 100,000 departing passengers for the first time, telling airlines to stop selling tickets over the next two months.

Heathrow has told airlines it expects the industry slots co-ordinator to take about two weeks to sort out new schedules.

In the meantime, the airport has imposed emergency measures that will run until July 24 to try to force airlines to cancel flights and stop selling tickets for any outbound journeys.

Late on Friday, Emirates and Heathrow released a joint statement that said after a “constructive” meeting the airline had agreed to cap new ticket sales on its flights out of Heathrow until mid-August, but that its flights would operate as normal until then.

In the letter to the UK government seen by the Financial Times, Holland-Kaye said the airport had been working “intensively” with airlines to try to reduce the number of flight cancellations this summer, such as by reducing the numbers of passengers per plane or moving flights to off-peak times.

“Most airlines have already complied, and we are grateful for their rapid action, and we are working with the remaining airlines to finalise their plans. Airlines are mandated to act through our conditions of use,” he wrote.

But despite the apparent truce with Emirates, Holland-Kaye blamed airlines for the resourcing problems. He said ground handlers, which are contracted by airlines, were still only operating at 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

“We have been raising this issue with airlines and their ground handlers for several months now and have asked them to provide evidence to show they have the capacity to meet demand. Despite this, there has been no net increase of resource that we can see over the last six months, and no recruitment pipeline,” Holland-Kaye wrote.

One airline executive said airlines are frustrated by Heathrow’s limits, which some carriers see as disproportionate.

They are particular aggrieved at an edict that stops airlines rebooking passengers for two weeks, which they say will cause havoc for travellers.

“Airlines are continuing to work with Heathrow to minimise any further flight cancellations and to explore every option to smooth departing passenger flows through the terminals,” the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK, the association representing the majority of carriers operating to the UK, said in a statement.