Authorities at UK’s largest airport are asking airlines to stop selling summer tickets to avoid further passenger queues, flight delays and cancellations
The massive avalanche of travelers following the paralysis during the coronavirus pandemic and the lack of staff to meet such demand have made Heathrow airport, the largest in the UK and one of the busiest in the world, unmanageable. Given the successive scenes of chaos that have been witnessed especially in recent days, with long passenger waiting times, delays and cancellations of dozens of flights, an unprecedented measure was passed this Tuesday: setting a daily limit of 100,000 travelers, resulting in the request to airlines to stop selling summer tickets.
The general manager of Heathrow-London airport, John Holland-Kaye, said in a statement that the measure will be in effect until September 11 and is expected to provide better service. “In just four months, we have experienced the equivalent of 40 years of increase (in passengers),” he explained, specifying that as a result, “of late we have seen demand exceed capacity from the airport, airlines and ground services. .
While the increase in passenger volume is undeniable, especially when you consider that the industry is still recovering from a slump in travel that saw UK traffic drop to just 3% of normal levels in early 2020. Due to Covid-19, the real problem Heathrow is facing is the lack of staff. After thousands of airline and airport workers in the country have been laid off as a result of the pandemic, recruiting workers is proving very difficult.
“We are recruiting new staff as soon as possible and aim to return to providing the excellent service expected from the UK hub airport as soon as possible,” Holland-Kaye promised. Not in vain, the low number of employees to cope with the ‘boom’ of travelers has led to a lack of control over some critical functions of the aerodrome, such as those related to registration and baggage management.
According to Holland-Kaye, the chaos “has been greater in recent weeks, when the number of departing passengers regularly exceeded 100,000 a day”. “In those cases, we have begun to see periods of service where service drops to levels that are unacceptable: long lines, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not traveling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and cancellations. He underlined that 61 flights had to be suspended at Heathrow on Monday alone, which had asked airlines since the end of June to cut more flights from summer schedules, mainly due to huge problems with baggage delivery.
Source: La Verdad
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