Chief executive John Holland-Kaye announced the “difficult decision” in an open letter to passengers, saying that “over the last few weeks, as the number of departing passengers regularly exceeds 100,000 per day, we have started to see periods where the service drops to a level is not acceptable… Our colleagues are doing everything they can to get as many passengers out as possible, but we cannot put them at risk for their own safety and well-being.”
Many airlines are working to reduce the number of passengers entering and leaving Heathrow. But Holland-Kaye said Heathrow’s latest forecast showed excess seats had already been sold and therefore airlines should stop selling tickets now.
“Even with the amnesty, daily summer departures will average 104,000 – meaning a daily excess of 4,000 seats. On average, only around 1,500 of these 4,000 daily seats have currently been sold to passengers and we are therefore asking our airline partners to stop selling flight tickets to limit the impact on passengers.”
In 2018, the daily number of passengers passing through Heathrow was nearly 220,000, split between arrivals and departures.
Lufthansa ( DLAKY ), which has already canceled thousands of flights from Frankfurt and Munich for the summer season, said it may make further adjustments to its schedule “for peak traffic in August”.
“In this way, Lufthansa has made a notable contribution to the relief of airports, including Heathrow in London,” a spokesperson told CNN Business.
The head of the International Air Transport Association, the group representing global airlines, called Heathrow’s travel restrictions “ridiculous”.
“The airlines were forecasting stronger traffic than Heathrow was forecasting… they obviously got it completely wrong,” said Willie Walsh, director general of IATA. “Telling airlines to stop selling – what a ridiculous thing for an airport to say to an airline.”
Walsh, the former chief executive of British Airways owner IAG, added: “Heathrow are trying to maximize the profit they get from the airport at the expense of the airlines.”
A Heathrow spokesman dismissed Willie Walsh’s comments, telling Reuters: “Aviation is under significant pressure as demand grows – at Heathrow we are facing 40 years of growth in just four months and what we need is working together and investment in services to protect passengers, not ill-informed comments from retired airline bosses.”
—Sharon Brown-Peter contributed reporting.
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