Travellers queue at security at Heathrow Airport in London. Photo / AP
Travellers queue at security at Heathrow Airport in London. Photo / AP
Emirates is refusing to cut its flights into London's Heathrow Airport, which has told airlines it will restrict the number of passengers it handles until mid-September.
Travel agents here are uncertain how Kiwi travellers will be affected by the Heathrow plans, labelled by Emirates as an "airmageddon" situation.
''They arepushing the entire burden – of costs and the scramble to sort the mess - to airlines and travellers,'' the airline says.
Heathrow has announced a seemingly arbitrary cap of 100,000 daily passengers.
Considering the airport handled 80.9 million passengers annually in 2019, or a daily average of 219,000, the airline says the cap represents greater than a 50 per cent cut at a time when LHR claims to have 70 per cent of ground handling resources in place, the Dubai-based airline says.
Heathrow's demand would mean Emirates cutting one of its six daily A380 flights to Dubai which are fed by its global network, including flights from Auckland.
''Now, with blatant disregard for consumers, they wish to force Emirates to deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers who have paid for, and booked months ahead, their long-awaited package holidays or trips to see their loved ones.''
Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam has also cut back on the number of flights allowed and commercial director at the House of Travel, Brent Thomas, said agents in New Zealand had already fielded calls from clients impacted by disruption in Europe.
Emirates flies six Airbus A380s into Heathrow a day. Photo / Supplied
"It's not just at Heathrow - we're getting lots of disrupt inquiries from customers.''
It was hard to pinpoint the flights that could be affected by Heathrow's action, he said.
The Heathrow move comes at what has been described by Emirates as the ''super peak'' period in Britain, and at a time when many people are desperate to travel after two years of pandemic restrictions.
''Emirates believes in doing the right thing by our customers. However, rebooking the sheer numbers of potentially impacted passengers is impossible with all flights running full for the next weeks, including at other London airports and on other airlines.''
Moving passenger operations to other British airports at such short notice is also not realistic. Ensuring ground readiness to handle and turn around a widebody long-haul aircraft with 500 passengers aboard is not as simple as finding a parking spot at a mall.
A Heathrow airport spokesperson has said it was working with airlines to adjust schedules to ensure passenger levels do not exceed the available capacity of airlines, airline ground handlers and the airport.
''This will result in changes to flight schedules as the changes are worked through in line with the new cap. All of this is designed to give passengers a better, more reliable journey through the airport and to keep everyone working at the airport safe."
Emirates said the airport chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest. Now faced with an "airmageddon" situation due to their incompetence and non-action, they are pushing the entire burden – of costs and the scramble to sort the mess - to airlines and travellers.
Heathrow has been the scene of ''baggage mountains'' stranded in the system as it struggles to cope with the strong rebound in travel.
The Financial Times reports British Airways said it would have to cancel "a small number of additional flights" as a result of the Heathrow cap, which it said was "incredibly disappointing".
Heathrow said it had been asking airlines to sort out their resourcing for the summer "for months".
"No clear plans were forthcoming and with each passing day the problem got worse ... It would be disappointing if instead of working together, any airline would want to put profit ahead of a safe and reliable passenger journey," the airport said.
Thomas said it was not only international travel issues that were spurring clients to ring agents.
The disruption to domestic flights caused by staff illness and bad weather had annoyed some clients, whose agents were in some cases working to re-route them.
He said it was unacceptable that passengers who had certain ticket types and needed to deal directly with Air New Zealand were waiting hours on phone helplines.
• Air New Zealand will extend its Covid flexibility policy to August 31 as illness hits its staff and passengers. Customers can opt for credit or make a change to their booking with change fees waived for any reason through its app or website.
