Heathrow apologises for unacceptable performance but lays some blame with passengers

Airport will ask airlines to cancel more flights if it does not believe previous schedule reductions will sufficiently reduce disruption

Travellers queue Heathrow Airport. Long queues, cancellations and luggage problems at Heathrow and other airports have plagued the travel sector’s comeback from coronavirus restrictions. AP

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

British Airways will cancel flights for more than 100,000 summer holidaymakers in an attempt to avoid a repeat of the recent travel chaos at UK airports. Reuters

The cancelled flights represent 14 per cent of those scheduled from Gatwick and nearly 7 per cent from Heathrow, pictured. Reuters

More than 76,000 seats are being cancelled from Heathrow and 29,400 from Gatwick on flights to more than 70 destinations including Malaga, Ibiza, Palma, Faro and Athens, according to 'The Daily Telegraph'. Salman S Chaudhry / Twitter

Travellers queue to check in for their flights at Gatwick. EPA

Birmingham Airport was the worst in the UK for flight delays last year, analysis shows. Flights were an average of 12 minutes and 24 seconds late taking off from the West Midlands airport in 2021, Civil Aviation Authority data seen by PA showed. PA

Left luggage at baggage reclaim in Heathrow. PA

Long queues at Gatwick Airport. UK travellers face continuing disruption. EPA

Passengers in a long queue for check in outside Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport. Reuters

Heathrow has apologised for "unacceptable" flight cancellations, delays and lost baggage which are blighted the return to air travel, but partly blamed other airports and passengers unfamiliar with travelling.

The west London airport said nearly six million passengers travelled through its terminals in June, bringing the total for the year so far to 25 million.

It said the growth in the past four months matches what took place over the past 40 years.

However, the experience for many passengers has been far from enjoyable, resulting in chaotic scenes and great frustration. The airport has previously said the problems could last 18 months.

Today, it was forced to order airlines to cancel 61 flights at short notice as it could not handle the expected number of passengers.

Much of the blame for the months of problems has been placed on the aviation industry for shedding tens of thousands of jobs during the pandemic, then being unable to recruit quickly enough once flights took off again.

However, the industry has also been quick to say that the UK government could have done more to improve the process by speeding up security checks and relaxing rules on '"use it or lose it" routes.

Those regulations have now been eased and the airport urged airlines to take advantage by reorganising schedules to prepare for an “extremely busy summer season”.

A Heathrow statement said: "Rebuilding capacity quickly is very challenging after the significant reductions in resource across the entire aviation supply chain. Arrivals punctuality is very low as a result of delays at other airports and airspace congestion across Europe and this has compounded the challenge of resource constraints for the airport, airlines, ground handlers and government agencies.

"In spite of this, we have been able to provide a good level of service for the vast majority of passengers. However, despite our best efforts there have been periods in recent weeks where service levels have not been acceptable, with long queue times, delays for passengers with reduced mobility, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late and we want to apologise to any passengers who have been affected by this."

However, Heathrow did not accept all the blame.

"Many people will not have travelled in some time," the statement said. "Passengers can help prepare for their journeys by ensuring they arrive at Heathrow no earlier than three hours before their flights, that they have their liquids less than 100ml packed in a clear, resealable 1-litre bag and remove their large electronic items from their bags prior to security checkpoints."

Regarding today's cancellations, a spokeswoman for the airport said: “We are expecting higher passenger numbers in terminals three and five today than the airport currently has capacity to serve, and so to maintain a safe operation we have asked some airlines in terminals three and five to remove a combined total of 61 flights from the schedule.

“We apologise for the impact to travel plans and we are working closely with airlines to get affected passengers rebooked onto other flights."

An investigation by PA, meanwhile, showed Heathrow to be Britain’s third-worst airport for flight delays last year. During 2021, the west London airport was found at have had an average flight delay time of 11 minutes and 48 seconds.

Heathrow said it will ask airlines to cancel more flights this summer if it does not believe previous schedule reductions will sufficiently reduce disruption.

Airlines were ordered by the government and the Civil Aviation Authority last month to make sure their timetables are “deliverable” after the sector was unable to cope with demand during the UK's recent jubilee half-term school holiday period.

Decades of flight: Heathrow through the years - in pictures

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

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: “Last month, we saw exponential growth in passenger numbers as nearly six million people got away — the equivalent of 40 years of growth in just four months.

“We have already seen times recently when demand exceeds the capacity of the airport, airlines and ground handlers.

“We will review the schedule changes that airlines have submitted in response to the government’s requirement to minimise disruption for passengers this summer and will ask them to take further action if necessary.

“We want everyone who is travelling through Heathrow to be confident that they will have a safe and reliable journey.”

Meanwhile, the boss of a leading airline services company said inaction from ministers Rishi Sunak and Grant Shapps contributed to the “predictable” and “preventable” delays and cancellations that have affected airports across the country.

Philipp Joeinig, chief executive of Menzies Aviation, said requests from the industry for government help in minimising staff shortages fuelled by Brexit and the pandemic have not resulted in “forthcoming” help, exacerbating the current situation.

He said the industry had unsuccessfully lobbied the Treasury earlier in the pandemic, with Mr Sunak then serving as chancellor, for aid after the end of the government’s furlough schemes.

Writing in The Times, he said: “The present travel disruption is not because of a single point of failure, with staffing issues affecting the whole market. Not only was this predictable, it was also preventable.

“Brexit had a big negative impact, reducing the available pool of employees.

“This was compounded during the pandemic, with the British aviation sector suffering huge job losses once furlough schemes ended before the easing of travel restrictions — and with many of these people lost to the industry forever.

“The aviation sector lobbied the government at the time to provide sector-specific aid to retain its skilled, security-cleared people to avoid staff shortages. This was not forthcoming for aviation services businesses.”

'Love Actually' hugging scene recreated at Heathrow Airport 18 years on