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London’s Heathrow has said it will limit the number of departing passengers to 100,000 a day this summer to try to limit disruption to travelers as it struggles to cope with a recovery in demand.
Airlines at Britain’s busiest airport have already responded to a government call to reduce capacity, but Heathrow said they needed to go further.
It said airlines, baggage handlers and the airport could collectively handle 100,000 departing passengers, a number that had been regularly exceeded in recent weeks resulting in unacceptable levels of service.
“Some airlines have taken significant action, but others have not, and we believe further action is needed now to ensure passengers have a safe and reliable journey,” Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said in an open letter to passengers on Tuesday.
“We have therefore taken the difficult decision to introduce a capacity cap with effect from July 12 to September 11.”
“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,” he added.
Holland-Kaye said forecasts showed that even with the amnesty, daily summer departure seats would average 104,000, 4,000 above the cap.
It said an average of about 1,500 of those 4,000 daily seats had currently been sold to passengers and was asking airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers.
