Holiday chaos as Heathrow caps passengers & tells airlines to axe 1,000 flights

SUMMER holidays are being rationed after Heathrow bosses ordered airlines to cancel at least 1,000 more flights.

Britain’s busiest airport is capping the number able to fly each day for the next two months — with airlines told to stop selling tickets.

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The latest woe comes amid continuing travel misery with the country facing its biggest rail strike in 25 years, and walkouts planned by Ryanair and easyJet staff and aviation fuel workers.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye, who earned £1.5million last year, yesterday said there would be a limit of 100,000 people a day until September 11.

With airlines scheduled to fly 104,000 people out of Heathrow daily, the move means hundreds more flights axed.

Affected passengers will not get any compensation as the cause of cancellation is legally beyond their airline’s control.

Mr Holland-Kaye insisted Heathrow had to act to tackle huge queues, delays, lost bags and last-minute cancellations.

He said: “Some airlines have taken significant action but others have not and we believe that further action is needed.

“We have therefore made the difficult decision to introduce a capacity cap with effect from July 12 to September 11.

“Our assessment is that the maximum number of daily departing passengers that airlines, airline ground handlers and the airport can collectively serve over the summer is no more than 100,000.”

Of the 4,000 daily seats above the new cap, about 1,500 have already been sold.

Those with tickets will have to be rebooked on other flights — possibly with different airlines and on different dates.

Mr Holland-Kaye said: “We are asking airline partners to stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers.”

Travellers have already faced weeks of chaos caused by staff shortages.

Last week, British Airways axed 10,300 flights up until October.

It had previously canned another 16,000 in March.

EasyJet has cut more than 10,000 trips, while Ryanair ditched seven per cent of its summer schedule and Wizz Air five per cent.

On Monday, Heathrow told airlines to cancel 61 flights because of a surge in passengers at two terminals.

Furious flyer Neil Evans tweeted yesterday: “What a f*****g s*** show.”

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