London’s Heathrow airport apologizes for travel disruptions

LONDON, July 11 (BNA) London Heathrow Airport apologized on Monday to passengers whose flights were disrupted due to a lack of staff and warned that airlines may be asked to cut more flights from their summer schedules to reduce stress if the chaos continues.

Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, said service levels have been unacceptable at times in recent weeks, with long queues for security, delays in helping passengers with mobility issues, and baggage lost or arriving late.

“We want to apologize to any passenger affected by this,” the Associated Press (AP) quoted the airport as saying.

The summer travel demand boom after two years of travel restrictions imposed by the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19) has flooded airlines and airports in Europe, which have been left short cut after the layoffs of many pilots, cabin crew, check-in staff, ground crew and baggage handlers.

At Heathrow Airport, unclaimed baggage was accumulated in arrivals due to a technical malfunction in the baggage system.

Compounding the problem, Heathrow said punctuality for incoming flights was “too low” due to delays at other airports and airspace congestion across Europe.

Heathrow said it began hiring in November in anticipation of a recovery in travel demand this summer and expects security staff to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of July. It also reopened Terminal 4 to give passengers more space.

British airlines have reduced their summer flight schedules after authorities ordered them to ensure they could operate without interruption during the summer. British Airways reduced 11% of its flights between April and October to avoid canceling flights on the day of departure.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland Kaye said the airport would review the proposed cuts to airlines and “will ask them to take further action if necessary”.

Emphasizing the problems at Heathrow, the airport said in a separate statement that it had ordered airlines operating in Terminals 3 and 5 to cancel 61 flights on Monday because it expected more passengers there than it could serve.

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