Heathrow Airport caps daily passengers until October

Heathrow Airport in London will continue to cap daily passenger numbers until the end of October.

The London transport hub, which is one of the busiest in Europe, will limit traveller departures to 100,000 per day until October 29 as a way to deal with an increasing demand for air travel alongside staff shortages.

The cap was imposed in July, during peak summer travel season and was expected to be lifted on September 11. Instead, it will continue until the end of October.

Airlines were told to stop selling tickets during this time as airport ground staff would not be able to facilitate the projected amount of passenger traffic.

So far, the cap has been working. The airport said it had resulted in "fewer last-minute cancellations" and "shorter waits for bags."

The airport said it would continue to review the cap and it "could be lifted earlier should there be a sustained picture of better resilience and a material increase in resourcing levels."

Baggage hall "hell"

Following the pandemic, tens of thousands of airline crew from pilots to baggage handlers were laid off. Now, with restrictions largely dropped and demand quickly rising, the industry is scrambling to rehire.

Flights in and out of Heathrow have been delayed and cancelled, and passengers have reported long waits in security, lost bags and flight delays.

However, one Kiwi traveller who flew into Heathrow Airport on Monday said it was a mixed experience.
According to one Kiwi traveller, flying into Heathrow Airport was a mixed experience.

Upon arriving in London on Monday, Amy Pollok said going through customs had been seamless.

"Customs was an absolute dream," said Pollok, adding that it had felt like seconds before she and her partner were through.

However, the stories of baggage chaos were indeed true and the baggage hall looked "like hell".

"People from the flight next to us have been waiting an hour and a half," she said.

Both their bags arrived safely but just in case, Pollok said they had split their belongings between the two bags.