Heathrow apologises for chaos but warns of more cancellations

theguardian.com:

Heathrow airport has apologised for chaos caused by delays and cancellations and warned that it may have to ask airlines to cancel more flights as it struggles to cope with the rebound in travel demand after the pandemic.

Passengers at Heathrow and other airports including London rival Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester have reported persistent problems with huge queues to pass through security, lost hold baggage, and the regular failure to send staff to help travellers with mobility issues – resulting in hours-long waits on empty planes for those in wheelchairs who cannot leave without the correct equipment.

Heathrow said on Monday 6 million passengers travelled through the airport in June – the equivalent of 40 years of growth in just four months – and 25m in the first six months of 2022. That compared with only 19.4 million passengers across the whole of 2021.

“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,” it said in a statement to the stock market on Monday morning.

It also said it would “carefully assess” airlines’ cuts to summer schedules, after the UK government pushed a “slot amnesty” to allow carriers to cancel flights without losing their share of access rights to airports.

The Heathrow chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, warned that it may ask airlines to cancel more flights if it thinks the schedules are still too ambitious and likely to add to the chaos.

“We will review the schedule changes that airlines have submitted in response to the government’s