Emirates Slams London’s Heathrow Airport and Says It Won’t Scrap Flights
LONDON—Emirates, one of the world’s biggest airlines, lashed out at Heathrow Airport’s decision earlier this week to limit the number of passengers departing the hub and said it won’t comply with the request to cut flights to and from the airport.
Heathrow, in the throes of staffing shortfalls and surging summer travel demand, has capped daily departing passengers to 100,000 a day through September. It said the move would help it cope with the throngs of passengers that have overwhelmed the airport and others in Europe. As part of that cap, it has asked airlines using the airport to cancel flights, shift others to alternate airports and halt sales of tickets for London departures.
Emirates said Heathrow gave it 36 hours notice to cancel scheduled flights to meet the cap. The airline said instead it would continue to operate its original schedule as planned.
Heathrow Airport says the passenger cap would help it cope with throngs of travelers, such as those at Terminal 2 departures last month, that have overwhelmed it in recent weeks.
Photo:
HENRY NICHOLLS/REUTERS
“London Heathrow chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest,” Emirates said in a statement, adding: “They are pushing the entire burden—of costs and the scramble to sort the mess—to airlines and travelers.” Emirates is owned by the emirate of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai’s own airport was the world’s busiest, by international passengers, before the Covid-19 pandemic whipsawed the aviation industry.
Heathrow said it had no choice but to impose the passenger cap to improve reliability and ensure safety at the airport. “For months we have asked airlines to help come up with a plan to solve their resourcing challenges, but no clear plans were forthcoming,” a spokesman for Heathrow said in a statement.
What happens next is unclear. Heathrow has said its passenger cap is unprecedented in terms of scope and duration. Other airports including London Gatwick and Amsterdam’s Schiphol have enacted similar restrictions. Emirates, meanwhile, is the only big airline so far to publicly push back on the caps. A Heathrow spokesman said airlines are required to comply with the cap to manage passenger demand and “we are engaging proactively with them to ensure a resilient and safe summer operation.”
Since October, Emirates has been operating six daily flights with its Airbus SE A380 super jumbo aircraft, the world’s biggest passenger plane, with seats for 500 passengers. The airline said its ground handling and catering operations in London, run by subsidiary dnata, is ready to handle the capacity.
“From our past 10 months of regularly high seat loads, our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport,” Emirates said.
Write to Benjamin Katz at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
LONDON—Emirates, one of the world’s biggest airlines, lashed out at Heathrow Airport’s decision earlier this week to limit the number of passengers departing the hub and said it won’t comply with the request to cut flights to and from the airport.
Heathrow, in the throes of staffing shortfalls and surging summer travel demand, has capped daily departing passengers to 100,000 a day through September. It said the move would help it cope with the throngs of passengers that have overwhelmed the airport and others in Europe. As part of that cap, it has asked airlines using the airport to cancel flights, shift others to alternate airports and halt sales of tickets for London departures.
Emirates said Heathrow gave it 36 hours notice to cancel scheduled flights to meet the cap. The airline said instead it would continue to operate its original schedule as planned.
Heathrow Airport says the passenger cap would help it cope with throngs of travelers, such as those at Terminal 2 departures last month, that have overwhelmed it in recent weeks.
Photo:
HENRY NICHOLLS/REUTERS
“London Heathrow chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest,” Emirates said in a statement, adding: “They are pushing the entire burden—of costs and the scramble to sort the mess—to airlines and travelers.” Emirates is owned by the emirate of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates. Dubai’s own airport was the world’s busiest, by international passengers, before the Covid-19 pandemic whipsawed the aviation industry.
Heathrow said it had no choice but to impose the passenger cap to improve reliability and ensure safety at the airport. “For months we have asked airlines to help come up with a plan to solve their resourcing challenges, but no clear plans were forthcoming,” a spokesman for Heathrow said in a statement.
What happens next is unclear. Heathrow has said its passenger cap is unprecedented in terms of scope and duration. Other airports including London Gatwick and Amsterdam’s Schiphol have enacted similar restrictions. Emirates, meanwhile, is the only big airline so far to publicly push back on the caps. A Heathrow spokesman said airlines are required to comply with the cap to manage passenger demand and “we are engaging proactively with them to ensure a resilient and safe summer operation.”
Since October, Emirates has been operating six daily flights with its Airbus SE A380 super jumbo aircraft, the world’s biggest passenger plane, with seats for 500 passengers. The airline said its ground handling and catering operations in London, run by subsidiary dnata, is ready to handle the capacity.
“From our past 10 months of regularly high seat loads, our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport,” Emirates said.
Write to Benjamin Katz at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Denial of responsibility! Techno Blender is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.