Why Has London’s Heathrow Airport Told Airlines to Stop Selling Flight Tickets?

Passengers have been hit by delays and cancellations at airports across the UK due to a shortage of staff after thousands were laid off or left the industry during Covid-19 pandemic.

London/New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, the Heathrow Airport in London, UK on Tuesday introduced a 100,000 limit on daily departing passengers until September and ordered airlines to stop selling summer tickets as airports battle a staff recruitment crisis, the media reported.

The dramatic move will impose a maximum limit on the number of passengers allowed to leave the airport between July 12 until September 11, reported the Daily Mail. Airlines had planned to operate flights with a daily capacity averaging 104,000 seats over that period – meaning further cancellations are likely, it said.

No compensation for affected passengers

Heathrow said it has ordered airlines to ‘stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers’. The measure will lead to more cancellations on top of the thousands of flights axed in recent months. Affected passengers will not be entitled to compensation as the reason for the cancellations will be classified as being outside the control of airlines.

Airports across UK hit by staff shortage

Passengers have been hit by delays and cancellations at airports across the UK due to a shortage of staff after thousands were laid off or left the industry during Covid-19 pandemic. Yesterday (Monday), Heathrow cancelled another 61 flights at the last minute – disrupting 10,000 passengers, Daily Mail reported.

And in a fresh sign of chaos, easyJet passengers ‘mutinied’ after being forced to wait for four hours on the Gatwick Airport runway yesterday. The plane never even departed and they had to wait ‘until midnight’ to collect their luggage after being returned to the terminal.

Service dropping to unacceptable level: Official

Announcing the passenger cap, Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said on Tuesday: “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.”

Common problems include long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and last-minute cancellations, Holland-Kaye said, the Daily Mail report added.

(With inputs from IANS)