Heathrow passenger chaos may not end until 2024

Limit of 100,000 daily departing passengers announced on July 12 to remain in place

Long queues, cancellations and luggage problems have plagued Heathrow Airport since the travel sector’s comeback from coronavirus restrictions. Bloomberg

The airport has struggled to cope with a volume of more than 100,000 departing passengers a day, with bags arriving late, queues snaking through terminals and flights being cancelled at the 11th hour. Reuters

Travelling through Heathrow has been a dire experience for some of late. AP

Suitcases uncollected at Heathrow's Terminal 3 baggage reclaim. AFP

There is a shortage of staff after many people were laid off during the pandemic. AP

Heathrow rejects the accusation of having failed to prepare, saying it started recruiting extra staff last November. AP

Baggage piles up outside Terminal 2 at Heathrow in June. Baggage issues have bedevilled the airport, with a combination of staff shortages and malfunctioning automated baggage handling systems contributing to the mayhem. Reuters

One traveller shows his disappointment while waiting in a long queue to pass through a security check in June. Getty Images

Passengers queue to check in at Terminal 5. Bloomberg

A queue snakes through the airport. Getty Images

A waiting passenger decides to get some sleep in Terminal 5. Reuters

Long queues form through a terminal. PA

A crowded check in area in Terminal 2 in April. Heathrow rejects the accusation of having failed to prepare, saying it started recruiting months ago. PA

A dejected looking passenger queues for check-in ahead of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend at Heathrow in April. Reuters

People queuing to go through security at Heathrow. PA

Queues at arrivals in Heathrow in March. Photo: Sven Kili / Twitter

London's Heathrow Airport laid the blame for the cap on passenger numbers squarely on its operators on Tuesday as it said it had started the year "well" given its deep-seated problems that could take another 18 months to resolve.

"Recent months have shown that passengers value easy, quick and reliable journeys, not penny pinching," said chief executive officer John Holland-Kaye, who predicted the disruption could last to 2024. “It’s absolutely possible that we could have another summer with a cap still in place. It’s going to take 12 to 18 months, and not just at Heathrow.”

“This is not going to be a quick fix."

The airport’s adjusted loss before tax during the first six months of the year was £321 million, down from £787m during the same period in 2021. It attributed the improvement to a spike in passenger numbers, from 3.9 million to 26.1 million.

In a wide ranging attack on passenger habits, operators failures and the government, Mr Holland-Kaye even single out make-up in carry on luggage as a factor in the delays and cancellations.

"They have got more bags, and more liquids in their bags so that takes a little bit longer,” he told an interviewer.

The airport gave a detailed breakdown of its problems. "Planning has been based on summer peak demand exceeding 85 per cent of 2019, broadly in line with actuals," the statement said. "All parts of the airport are now fully operational. We have hired 1,300 people in the past six months and will have a similar level of security resource by the end of July as pre-pandemic.

Heathrow Airport in London, the UK's busiest, has been a travel hub for decades. Here The National takes a look back at Heathrow through the years. All photos: Getty Images

An Airco De Havilland biplane of the British airline, Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, about to leave on the company’s inaugural flight from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome, later known as Heathrow, to Le Bourget, Paris, in August 1919

Waterlogged runways at London Airport - Heathrow's original name - one week before it became Britain's main aerial gateway to the US in 1946

The new BOAC maintenance headquarters at London Airport circa 1955

The air traffic control room at the airport's new terminal in 1955

US film star Marilyn Monroe with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller, after arriving at the airport in July 1956

An aerial view showing the runways in 1958

The arrivals and departures board in 1960

A new airport gift shop, selling items by Chanel, Wedgwood and Pringle of Scotland, in 1961

The Queen's Building and the No. 1 Building Europa at Heathrow in 1965

The Beatles leave Heathrow for Salzburg in Austria, to resume filming of the movie Help!, in 1965

Passenger terminal gates at Heathrow in 1966

Keith Granville, managing director of BOAC, holding up a model of the Boeing 747 jet, with the new aircraft hangars under construction in the background, at Heathrow in 1969

An aerial view of Heathrow in 1970

Passengers boarding the first BOAC Jumbo Jet 747 used for a commercial flight, from London Heathrow to New York, in 1971

Passengers going through the departure lounge at Heathrow in 1973

Concorde takes off from Heathrow on her first commercial flight for British Airways in 1976

Men at work finalising the Heathrow Central underground station before its opening in 1977

Queen Elizabeth II passing though the Tube gates at Heathrow Central station on its opening in 1977

An aerial view of Heathrow in 1978

Passengers waiting near a departures board in 1979

Holidaymakers waiting in the departure lounge at Terminal 3 of Heathrow in 1981

British Airways employees protesting at Heathrow in 1984

Passengers and staff observe a silence in Heathrow's Terminal One to mark the beginning of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997

Rower Steve Redgrave at Heathrow with daughters Sophie and Natalie and son Zak after returning from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with his gold medal

Spectators watch the last Concorde land at Heathrow in 2003

Fans surround the coach carrying the England rugby team at Heathrow, as they arrived from Sydney after winning the World Cup in 2003

Heathrow's Terminal 2 in 2004

Passengers queue to check in at Terminal 1 of Heathrow Airport during the Christmas 2006 and New Year period

Passengers wait at Terminal 1 on August 10, 2006, after airport security was raised to critical when a terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US was disrupted by police

Planes queueing to take off at Heathrow in 2007

The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow in 2008

Aircraft at Heathrow Airport in front of the London skyline in 2016

Members of Team GB arrive from Rio de Janeiro at Heathrow, after returning from the 2016 Olympics, which saw Great Britain's strongest performance at the Games in over a century

A composite photo shows planes taking off from Heathrow in November 2016. Forty-two planes were captured between 10.17am and 11.17am and a montage was created from those single images

Items are arranged during an auction preview at Heathrow in 2018. The contents of Terminal 1, which closed in 2015, were being sold

An airline passenger wearing a face mask pushes her bags through Heathrow's Terminal 5 during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020

British Airways employees welcome Olympians returning from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021

Travellers wait in a long queue to pass through the security check in 2022

"In the second half of June, as departing passenger numbers regularly exceeded 100,000 a day, we started to see a worrying increase in unacceptable service levels for some passengers; an increase in delays to get planes on to stand, bags not travelling with passengers or being delivered very late to the baggage hall, low departure punctuality and some flights being cancelled after passengers had boarded," an airport statement said.

The management said there’s no prospect of lifting a cap on flights until airlines boost the number of ground personnel, saying carriers were too slow to combat staffing shortages that contributed to the travel chaos engulfing Europe this summer.

The airport operator said on Tuesday that a limit of 100,000 daily departing passengers announced on July 12 and originally due to run for two months “will remain in place until airlines increase their ground handler resource”.

In a combative earnings release, the UK hub sought to lay the blame for the curbs squarely at the door of carriers, which it said had failed to increase the number of their ground handlers since the start of the year, despite surging travel demand.

The airport, Europe’s busiest prior to the coronavirus crisis, met with backlash from passengers and resistance from airlines including Dubai-based Emirates when it revealed the flight restrictions, after initially suggesting it had escaped the worst of Europe’s travel crisis.

“We took swift action to protect consumers by applying a cap on departing passenger numbers, better aligned with their resources,” the statement said. “Airline ground handler performance has been much more stable since the cap came into effect, and we have seen a marked improvement in punctuality and baggage performance.”

Watch: Heathrow travel chaos