Due to a staffing shortage, Heathrow Airport will extend its limit on passengers until the end of October. It indicates that the limit will now be in effect until after the UK school half-term breaks.
After speaking with airlines, the airport announced that a daily cap of 100,000 departing passengers will now be in effect until October 29. It said that the action would make passenger travel more dependable.
The cap, according to the largest airport in the UK, will provide travelers peace of mind before their spring break vacations. When the restriction was officially declared in July, it was initially in effect until September 11th.
Due to the cap, British Airways stopped selling tickets for short-haul flights out of Heathrow Airport earlier this month. However, the airport added that the cap would be regularly reviewed and might be lifted early if staffing numbers improved.
“Our main priority is making sure we give our passengers a solid service when they travel,” said Ross Baker, chief commercial officer at Heathrow.
In response, a spokeswoman for the carrier Virgin Atlantic highlighted the company’s dissatisfaction with Heathrow’s choice to prolong its passenger capacity cap until the end of October. However, he stated that since new resources are still being added weekly and the airport experience is getting better, there was no need to raise the cap.
The airline reported that the staffing levels at its ground handlers, Cobalt Ground Solutions, which are in charge of services like ramp and luggage operations, are at 95% of 2019 levels.
Heathrow Airport at the center of cancellations
The decision would put thousands of travelers’ plans in doubt, according to consumer rights organization Which?, which also issued a warning about the move.
According to Guy Hobbs, travel editor for Which?, thousands of people will now be concerned about whether their travel plans will be thwarted, even though the extension of the passenger cap may help Heathrow avoid a repetition of the unacceptable last-minute cancellations we saw earlier in the summer.
Throughout the summer, travel disruptions have had an impact on tens of thousands of UK travelers.
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As international travel stopped due to the epidemic, the aviation sector lost thousands of jobs. But ever since, it has had trouble finding and appointing new hires rapidly enough.
The number of last-minute flight cancellations from the UK increased 188% in June 2022 compared to June 2019 prior to the pandemic, according to aviation data company Cirium. In a letter sent to airlines in June, the Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority requested that any flights that could not be delivered this summer be canceled.
For about 16,000 British Airways employees, the Unite union reported successfully negotiating a salary raise worth an average of 13%. Workers will receive a lump sum equal to 5% of their earnings in August, a consolidated 5% boost in September, and a further consolidated 3% increase in December as part of the agreement.
It happened after 700 BA employees at Heathrow, largely check-in staff, ended their walkout after accepting a similar compensation offer. The 10% salary decrease implemented during the COVID pandemic had first prompted support from the staff for strike action.
