London Heathrow’s capacity cap extended until October

London Heathrow Airport’s enforced capacity limit has been extended until 29 October. The airport temporarily limited the number of daily travellers to 100,000 in July to help alleviate the strain of staff shortages, which had caused delays, baggage transport issues, and cancellations. The temporary measures were previously due to expire on 11 September. On the extension, Heathrow chief commercial officer, Ross Baker, commented: “Our primary concern is ensuring we give our passengers a reliable service when they travel. That’s why we introduced temporary capacity limits in July.” “We want to remove the cap as soon as possible, but we can only do so when we are confident that everyone operating at the airport has the resources to deliver the service our passengers deserve.” According to Heathrow, the capacity cap has improved punctuality at the airport, has reduced the number of last-minute cancellations, and reduced waits for bags. London Gatwick, Amsterdam Schiphol, and Frankfurt Airport are other European airports that introduced summer-time passenger limits this year. Implementing these passenger limits across Europe has impacted international MICE travel having added logistical issues to delegate transport. Before extending the capacity limit, Heathrow stated that they discussed the plan with airlines before making the decision. Heathrow stated: “The capacity limits will be kept under regular review and could be lifted earlier should there be a sustained picture of better resilience and a material increase in resourcing levels, notably at some airline ground handlers which remains a core constraint on capacity at the airport.” When the cap was introduced in July, some airlines decided to suspend or limit ticket sales to comply with the capacity limit.