Heathrow insists check-ins ‘worked well’ amid jubilee chaos

theguardian.com:

Heathrow has insisted its check-in process “generally worked well” in May” despite chaos at UK airports during the half-term holidays, after recording its busiest month since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UK’s biggest airport said on Monday that with more air travellers checking-in online, 90% of passengers went through security in less than 10 minutes in May.

Heathrow said no more flights were cancelled at short notice than on a typical day and Border Force “performed well” during the month.

Holidaymakers getting away during the jubilee half-term break faced long queues and cancelled flights as the aviation industry struggled to cope with staff shortages and passenger numbers climbing back towards pre-pandemic levels.

Other airports including Gatwick and Manchester appeared to experience the worst disruption. But Heathrow customers complained they had to queue for hours at passport control from the weekend before the half-term holiday

Heathrow said it had worked with Border Force to minimise queueing times after an influx of passengers into the Terminal 3 immigration hall.

Heathrow said resources remain “tight” but it is working to “match supply and demand” which had made the difference over Easter and the half-term holidays.

The Heathrow chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said: “I’m immensely proud of the way my team has worked with airlines and other partners to ensure passengers got away during the jubilee half-term.

“We continue to make good progress with our plans to ramp up capacity and are working closely with airlines and Government to keep supply and demand in balance as we grow, so that passengers can travel through Heathrow this summer with confidence.”

Airports and airlines faced widespread anger from