Heathrow axed 61 flights last minute on Monday and warned more could be cancelled if it still can’t handle the remaining traffic.

Around 10,000 holidaymakers will lose at least a day from their trips as airlines have also been asked not to rebook them onto other planes leaving the same day.

Airlines will also be entitled to deny customers any compensation as the cancellations are technically out of their control.

The cancelled flights were all set to leave from Terminals 3 and 5, but passengers coming through all terminals were warned of ‘very low’ punctuality from arriving flights.

Airport bosses said the decision was made after they realised they would not have the capacity to serve the number of passengers expected.

‘Significant security delays and baggage system failures this weekend’ were said to have compounded the existing issues of ‘airspace constraints across Europe and a lack of airline ground-handling staff’.

The cancellation order was made to all airlines using the affected terminals, though only Virgin Atlantic immediatealy confirmed changes to its services.

Virgin said it had cancelled three flights and that its ‘teams are working hard to ensure customers can complete their journey as quickly as possible’.

Passengers will be given the option to rebook on a later date or request a refund, the company added.

Many airlines say they have struggled to return to previous staffing levels after they were hit by a double-whammy of Brexit and the Covid pandemic.

Despite this, more than six times as many passengers travelled through Heathrow during the first half of the year than the same period in 2021.

Philipp Joeinig, chief executive of Menzies Aviation, on Monday blamed ministers for contributing to ‘preventable’ chaos by refusing to hand extra pandemic aid to the air industry.

He urged the government to add aviation workers to its post-Brexit shortage occupation list and reduce referencing checks on new hires.

Heathrow admitted there have been ‘periods in recent weeks where service levels have not been acceptable’ but insisted ‘the vast majority’ of passengers had received ‘good’ service.

Problems include ‘long queue times, delays for passengers with reduced mobility (and) bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late’.

A spokesperson for the airport said: ‘We apologise for the impact to travel plans and we are working closely with airlines to get affected passengers rebooked on to other flights.’

Airlines recently came up with new summer schedules in response a 22-point action plan issued by the government to minimise disruption.

Heathrow said it will also review the changes and could request further cancellations.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article