Heathrow Asks Airlines To Stop Selling Summer Tickets

The summer of travel is going to be an unprecedented one, and both airlines and airports are struggling to keep up. One of Europe's busiest airports realized that more needs to be done to decrease the number of travelers.

Adding a daily passenger cap and asking airlines to stop selling tickets for the rest of the summer has been done by the airport.

Heathrow has more passengers than it can handle

In order to manage the passenger experience over the next few months, the CEO of the airport wrote an open letter.

There has been a drop in service levels at the airport due to the number of daily travelers exceeding 100,000. Long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not traveling with passengers or arriving late are just a few of the problems.

This is due to the number of travelers exceeding the combined capacity of airlines. 40 years of passenger growth has been claimed by the airport. I agree that is a bit disingenuous.

A general challenge with getting workers is that the airport started recruiting for more staff in November. According to reports, by the end of July, there will be as many people working in security as there were before. More workers are needed in other functions as well.

The current number of travelers puts at risk the safety and wellbeing of staff, so it's time to take action.

Heathrow adds passenger cap, asks airlines to stop selling tickets

There is a lack of reliability at Heathrow. The airport is adding new passenger caps for the rest of the summer travel period. Specifically, that's right.

• The airport can handle an average of at most 100,000 passengers per day while providing a decent experience
• The latest forecast shows that without further intervention, Heathrow will see an average of 104,000 travelers per day
• Heathrow believes that an average of 101,500 seats have already been sold to passengers for the remainder of summer, meaning airlines have sold more tickets than the airport can accommodate
• As a result, Heathrow has asked airlines to stop selling summer tickets to & from the airport, to limit the impact on passengers

I don't believe we'll see airlines stop selling tickets. Airlines don't want to give up revenue when tickets are the most expensive. I think it is more likely that airlines will cut frequencies rather than just stop selling flights that aren't booked out.

I think airlines are getting more guidance about what they need to do. I think the instructions are to take whatever steps they can to limit the number of people they carry.

Bottom line

In the next couple of months, there will be a lot of travelers at the airport. An average of 104,000 daily travelers are anticipated by the airport, and an average of 101,500 daily travelers are booked.

Airlines are being asked to cap travelers at an average of 100,000 per day. I don't think that the request to stop selling tickets will work out in the end.

What do you think about the attempt to limit the number of passengers?