The new limit of 100,000 passengers per day – which equates to a cut of 4,000 passengers per day – will apply from Tuesday until September 11, the airport said. Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said that in recent weeks, passenger numbers have regularly exceeded 100,000, leading to “periods where the service drops to a level that is not acceptable”. He said airlines, ground carriers and the airport were unable to handle such high volumes. Passengers faced long lines, delays, delayed or missed baggage and last-minute cancellations, he said. Without the cap, Heathrow predicted that daily departure seats over the summer would average 104,000 – giving a daily excess of 4,000 seats. “On average only around 1,500 of these 4,000 daily seats have currently been sold to passengers and we are therefore asking our partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers,” said Mr Holland- Kaye. “By taking this intervention now, our aim is to safeguard flights for the vast majority of passengers at Heathrow this summer and give confidence that everyone traveling through the airport will have a safe and reliable journey and reach their destination with their luggage. . “We recognize that this will mean that some summer trips will either be moved to another day, to another airport or canceled and we apologize to those whose travel plans are affected.” Mr Holland-Kaye said delays at other airports had a negative effect as passengers arrived late, increasing pressure on staff. “Our colleagues are doing everything they can to get as many passengers off as possible, but we cannot put them at risk for their own safety and well-being,” he said.
