Heathrow Airport will limit passenger traffic to 100,000 per day until September 11 and require airlines to stop selling summer tickets.
In recent weeks, the onset of summer travel has caused real chaos in many airports in Europe, airlines and understaffed ground staff are finding it difficult to deal with the increased demand after the pandemic, and strikes are making the situation so. Difficult.
According to the announcement from London Airport, ground service personnel are not yet available at full capacity, for example, the number of baggage handling is much less than necessary. They added that their goal is to restore confidence so that everyone traveling through the airport can be sure that they reach their destination with their luggage. At the same time, he apologized to those whose travel plans were affected by the restrictions and, as a result, their flight moved to another day or airport, or even their flight canceled. According to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, nearly three times as many flights were canceled from the UK in June compared to the same month in 2019, the last year of peace before the pandemic, even though airlines are operating fewer flights. air. general.
Heathrow is not the only airport that has imposed restrictions, Gatwick, London’s second-busiest air hub, said last month it would limit traffic to 825 flights per day in July and 850 in August, down from 950 flights in the pre-pandemic period. Schipol in Amsterdam has taken similar action, ordering Dutch airline KLM to limit ticket sales.
Some airlines have already taken action, British Airways has canceled many of its summer flights, about 13 per cent of its summer capacity. Wizz Air announced it yesterdayto ease his schedule and reduce his device usage compared to the original plans.
Cover Photo: Getty Images
