Turbulence ahead for travellers as London’s Heathrow cuts flights, caps daily passengers

Due to staff shortages at Heathrow airport, CEO John Holland-Kaye has capped passenger numbers to 100,000 per day over the summer and called on airlines to stop accepting new bookings.

London’s Heathrow airport has thrown a spanner in the works of peoples’ summer holiday plans by limiting the number of passengers going out until mid-September.

The sun is shining in Britain, and summer travel is at its peak, but travellers are miserable due to the chaos at Heathrow Airport. Shortage of staff has led to long baggage collection queues, lost luggage, and flight delays. Due to the lack of hands, no one is there to handle the baggage when it arrives due to delays, resulting in a tsunami of baggage at the airport.

Due to the halt on air travel during the pandemic, handling agencies that provide ground staff -- from baggage handlers to security -- to the airport cut down on manpower. But now, with everything opening, understaffed airports in many countries are not able to cope with the pent-up travel demand.

Such is the case at Heathrow, too, prompting CEO John Holland-Kaye to cap passenger numbers to 100,000 per day over the summer and call on airlines to stop accepting new bookings .

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Being one of the biggest and busiest airports in London, Heathrow serves about 203 destinations in 84 countries. According to 2018 figures, about 219,458 passengers go in and out of the airport daily -- double the limit that has now come into force.

In an open letter to passengers on the capacity cap, Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said, “The global aviation industry is recovering from the pandemic, but the legacy of Covid continues to pose challenges for the entire sector as it rebuilds capacity.”