Heathrow flight takes off with only luggage onboard

Passengers were moved on to other flights after Delta used empty Airbus to retrieve lost bags

Heathrow has struggled with the surge in demand after Covid lockdown rules were lifted. Photo: PA

A plane carrying only luggage flew out of Heathrow Airport after the travel hub cancelled thousands of flights and a US airline was forced to improvise to reunite passengers with their possessions.

Delta Air Lines used the Airbus SE A330-200 to fly home 1,000 items of luggage after Heathrow put a cap on passengers and cancelled thousands of trips, including one by the US company.

Delta’s “creative solution” came after the regularly scheduled London-to-Detroit Flight 17 on July 11 was grounded.

“We had a separate charter just to repatriate bags back to customers that have been stranded because of some of the operational issues,” chief executive Ed Bastian said on a conference call to discuss quarterly financial results.

Travellers were moved on to other flights, and Delta used the empty Airbus to retrieve the lost bags.

The luggage was returned to Detroit and forwarded to customers from there, Delta said on Wednesday.

Travellers to the UK this summer should brace themselves for disruptions and changes to flight schedules. Reuters

Officials at Heathrow Airport have announced a cap on flights over the summer. Photo: Jonathon Heyward / Twitter

The cap on flights is aimed at cutting huge queues. AP

Airlines were told to stop selling tickets to the west London airport. AP

Uncollected suitcases pile up at Heathrow's Terminal Three baggage reclaim, as British Airways axed another 10,300 short-haul flights up to the end of October. AFP

Lines of passenger luggage lie arranged outside Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport. Reuters

“Delta teams worked a creative solution to move delayed checked bags from London-Heathrow on July 11 after a regularly scheduled flight had to be cancelled given airport passenger volume restrictions at Heathrow,” a representative said.

“Delta Flight 9888 from Heathrow to Delta’s Detroit hub flew 1,000 bags back to the US, where teams then forwarded the bags on to our customers.”

Heathrow has struggled with the surge in demand after Covid lockdown rules were lifted.

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

The crisis has led to luggage pile-ups inside the airport with passengers forced to leave the terminals without their bags.

The recent cap on passengers, from about 104,000 people a day to 100,000, is on top of thousands of other flights that were cancelled in previous weeks.

Affected passengers will not be entitled to compensation because the reason for the cancellations will be classified as being outside the control of airlines.

About 131,000 passengers departed the airport on Heathrow’s busiest day on record, August 4, 2019.

Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association and former head of British Airways, panned moves to tell airlines to limit the number of seats they sell to limit summer disruption.

He said the airport underestimated the speed of the pandemic recovery and was focused on profit at the expense of airlines that must now foot the bill.

Delta posted lower-than-expected second-quarter profits and warned that cost pressures would remain elevated through the year as it battles operational challenges, sending its shares lower.

US airlines are enjoying the strongest summer travel season in three years as more people resume regular activities, including holidays.

International traffic and corporate travel demand are also on a rebound, making for a profitable second-quarter for most of the major airlines.

However, the industry's decision to let thousands of workers go at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has left it ill-equipped to deal with a surge in consumer demand.

Carriers are struggling to increase capacity and get operations back on a smoother track, resulting in higher operational costs.

Delta had to cancel 3.5 per cent of its scheduled flights last month. The flight disruptions, along with higher fuel costs, resulted in a profit below Wall Street estimates.