100,000 more travelers per day
British Airways halts short-haul flights from London
London Heathrow, the metropolis’ most important airport, is currently a major annoyance for travelers due to a lack of staff. Now the number of arriving and departing travelers is limited to 100,000 per day.
After the Corona crisis, air traffic is slowly but steadily picking up again. The frequencies are correspondingly high. This is leading to massive problems right now in the summer holidays – i.e. in the high season. The reason: European airports and airlines reduced their staff during the crisis. Those who have been laid off have had a new job for a long time and are not coming back.
The situation at London Heathrow Airport is particularly critical, as the BBC reports. Now the main London airport has reduced the number of passengers per day to 100,000. So far it has been up to 125,000 per day. This has consequences especially for the domestic British Airways. It is therefore no longer selling short-haul flights from Heathrow for a week. It goes without saying that holidaymakers are particularly affected at this time of year.
30,000 flights canceled
The airline spoke of a “reasonable” reaction to the restrictions, which would provide more rebooking options for customers who had already booked. As the largest airline at Heathrow, British Airways is more affected than others by the measure, which came as a surprise. In the current flight schedule up to October, the airline has already canceled almost 30,000 flights.
As the newspaper “Times” reported, airfares at other London airports such as Gatwick have already risen significantly since then. In the past few weeks, there have been chaotic scenes and hours of waiting, especially at Heathrow, but also at other British and some EU airports.
“As far as we know, no flight schedules were canceled from Zurich Airport due to these restrictions,” said an airport spokeswoman to Blick. (pbe/SDA)