Heathrow warning for Brits heading abroad this month

HEATHROW Airport has cut its passenger capacity by a third until next month to try and prevent holiday chaos.

Thousands of holidaymakers have seen cancelled flights and huge airport queues in recent weeks, which the London airport hopes to avoid by pre-emptively reducing the number of people travelling through the airport.

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The reduction in capacity has affected around 1,200 passengers an hour at Terminal 5 between the hours of 5am and 6pm, reduced from 11,200 to 8,610.

Passengers on those flights will have already been contacted, with airlines moving them onto different routes.

However, the move is temporary until July 3.

According to the Times, a source said:  “Without a reduction in demand, the operation would not be considered safe.”

A Heathrow Airport spokesperson told Sun Online Travel that while passenger numbers were at their highest during the pandemic, as many as “80 per cent” of destinations still have Covid rules in place, which means longer heck in processes.

They said: “Many airlines have flagged that they have already cancelled flights because of their own resourcing issues over the summer.

“Our primary concern is the safe operation of the airport and we will continue to support the airlines to make safe decisions for passengers during this period.

“As noted above, we are expecting lots of people to travel over the summer with passenger numbers across many days reaching levels last seen before the pandemic.”

They added that Terminal 4 will also be reopening from June 13.

The reduction has likely affected travellers who have already had their flights delayed or cancelled, with many airlines reducing their schedules in recent weeks.

EasyJet has cancelled at least 50 flights today, affecting passengers travelling from Gatwick, Bristol and Luton Airport, after being forced to slash their schedule over half term.

TUI is reducing their flight schedule this month, affecting roughly six flights a day, while British Airways pre-cancelled 124 flights today.

This is part of their own schedule reduction, affecting 16,000 flights between March and October.

And there are fears the chaos could extend well into the peak summer period.

Airport union Prospect’s general secretary Mike Clancy said the current chaos had a “really damaging impact” on holidaymakers and was unlikely to be solved by next month.

He told BBC: “It would be difficult to give anybody the confidence at the present minute, that we are going to be okay by the school holidays in July.”

And travel editor Rory Boland said: “We’re already seeing very long queues, widespread chaos at airports, huge stress for people planning to get away, and we haven’t hit the peak yet.”

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