In a shocking statement, the airline accused airport management of “incompetence” for not being prepared to deal with the “super peak period” for travel. Heathrow announced on Tuesday that it was limiting daily passenger numbers to 100,000 in the summer and asking airlines to stop selling tickets, in a bid to deal with the effects of rising travel demand and staff shortages. Apologizing to those affected, Heathrow said on Tuesday that the passenger cap would mean some summer flights would either be moved to another day or airport or cancelled. Airlines have already cut thousands of flights from their summer schedules after UK authorities said they would not be penalized for not using valuable take-off and landing slots in a bid to prevent last-minute cancellations. Subscribe to the Business Today daily email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter @BusinessDesk Heathrow said the cuts did not go far enough, but Emirates – which operates six daily return flights between Britain’s busiest airport and Dubai – said it was “very regrettable” that Heathrow was giving 36 hours on Wednesday to comply with capacity reductions “a rate that seems to come out of thin air”. The airline said: “Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should remove paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance.” Rising demand for summer travel after two years of Covid-19 restrictions has overwhelmed airlines and airports in Europe, which are understaffed after many pilots, cabin crew, check-in workers and baggage handlers were laid off. This has left passengers facing last-minute cancellations, long delays, lost luggage or long waits for luggage. Heathrow blames a shortage of ground staff, who are contracted by airlines to screen passengers, load and unload luggage and prepare aircraft for their onward journeys. However, Emirates said ground handling and catering services are owned by the airline’s parent company and “are fully ready and able to handle our flights”. Instead, responsibility rests with the airport’s “central services and systems,” it said. The airline accused Heathrow management of being “cavalier” with passengers and airlines, with signs of an industry recovery visible for months. Emirates said that while it had prepared for the turnaround, including rehiring and training 1,000 pilots over the past year, Heathrow had failed to act, plan or invest. “Now, faced with a situation of ‘air jams’ due to their incompetence and inaction, they are pushing the full weight of the cost and struggle to sort out the mess onto airlines and travelers,” the statement said. Heathrow said it had been asking airlines for months to help come up with a plan to solve their staffing challenges, “but there were no clear plans and every day the problem got worse.” The airport said in response to Emirates’ statement: “We had no choice but to take the difficult decision to impose a capacity cap designed to give passengers a better, more reliable journey and keep all airport workers safe. “It would be disappointing if, instead of working together, any airline wants to put profits ahead of a safe and reliable passenger journey.” Rebooking so many potentially affected passengers is impossible because all flights for the coming weeks are full, including to other London airports and on alternative airlines, Emirates said. Transferring some operations to other UK airports in the short term is also unrealistic, he added.
