Heathrow to lift 100,000 a day passenger cap
Heathrow Airport will lift the passenger cap on travellers leaving the UK through their terminals after a summer of mass cancellations and travel chaos for holidaymakers.
In July, the airport imposed a cap of 100,000 passengers departing their terminals a day due to staff shortages.
The cap was due to expire on September 11 but was extended with The Wall Street Journal reporting that aviation industry officials have now been told it will end later this month.
The cap was used to curb disruption caused by labour shortages in areas including security, ground staff and baggage handling.
Airlines and airports across Europe struggled to cope with the rebound in post-lockdown travel, with many failing to recruit enough staff to handle check-ins and baggage
Passenger journeys improved with fewer last-minute cancellations, better punctuality and shorter wait times for bags since the cap was introduced, Heathrow had said in August.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We took necessary action in July to introduce a temporary capacity cap which has since been extended through to the end of October.
“This cap resulted in fewer last-minute cancellations, better punctuality and shorter waits for bags. Our focus has always been on removing the cap as quickly as possible – but we will only do so if we are confident that adding in more passengers will not erode the service levels that the cap has secured.
“We continue to work with all of our airline partners ahead of the winter season to ensure a smooth operation for our passengers.”
It came as figures showed how Heathrow Airport was used by more than twice as many passengers in August than the same month in 2021.
Statistics released by the west London airport show six million people passed through its terminals last month.
That is up from 2.2 million last August.
The figure for last month remained below the pre-coronavirus total of 7.7 million in August 2019.
